Contending that its efforts to be a part of the UPA in Uttar Pradesh was all but over, Samajwadi party (SP) on Friday declared that its alliance with the Congress was ?broken? after the latter?s unilateral decision to announce 24 candidates in Uttar Pradesh for the coming Lok Sabha elections.
?I don?t want to use any harsh words, but the alliance is broken,? SP general secretary Amar Singh told reporters here, taking the matchmaking drama to new heights. ?The obituary of the alliance was written the day Congress had announced its list of 24 candidates in Uttar Pradesh,? he said.
He added that the SP was still ready to give a maximum of 17 seats and could not part with the 25 out of 80 seats being demanded by the Congress. The SP, incidentally, has unilaterally announced candidates for 62 constituences in UP.
However, in a clear indication that the SP did not want to close the negotiations yet, party supremo Mulayam Singh announced in Saifai, his home constituency that his party would not be putting up candidates against UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in Raebareilly and her son Rahul in Amethi, whether an alliance materialised or not.
The Congress was quick to reciprocate saying it will also not field candidates against Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav.
There was, however, no official response from the Congress to the pressure tactics from the Samajwadi party, although individual Congress leaders informally stuck to their earlier stand that they could not continue with the negotiations endlessly, which is why they decided to come out with their first list of candidates. The list includes some seats which were won by the SP in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.
Amar Singh, in fact, pointed out to this aspect on Friday maintaining that no political party?national or regional?could give seats it has won to any other party in the name of alliance and that ?the Congress wanted the best of both worlds?. ?If they can put up candidates in our sitting seats, then we can also do so…. There are seats like Aligarh and Varanasi where Congress has sitting MPs. SP could field candidates on such seats?.
The SP leader said that his party had promised to save the UPA government and get the nuclear deal through. ?We wanted to fulfill our third promise of fighting the Lok Sabha elections in UP together. However if our offer of 17 seats is not acceptable to Congress, then we accept our fate,? the SP leader said. He added sarcastically that ?SP understands the predicament of Congress. It is a strong party in UP, where it has several strong leaders. Its strength in the state was reflected in the recent Bhadohi bypoll where it had finished seventh?.
?Our principal opponent in Uttar Pradesh is BSP, however, if we feel that in any of the constituencies, our candidate is weak in comparison to BSP and Congress has a stronger candidate, then we will support the Congress in such constituencies,? he said. The SP general secretary, however, said that he still has all the respect for Sonia Gandhi and ?thanked? Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh for ?finally accepting the utility of Samajwadi Party in saving the UPA government?.