Uttar Pradesh CM hints at Bihar-type poll alliance

UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has said that a grand alliance against the BJP was possible in Uttar Pradesh too where assembly elections are due in 2017.

In an informal chat with reporters in Sant Kabir Nagar on Sunday, the chief minister made this statement but refused to elaborate on the parties which could be a part of the grand alliance in the state.

“There is still a lot of time for the elections and you will know in due course about other things,” he said.

The chief minister, who was on a private visit to Sant Kabir Nagar , said people in Bihar had given their decision in favour of development.

“In the UP panchayat polls, the people have favoured the Samajwadi government’s development plank,” he added.

Mr Yadav further said that his party would contest the 2017 Assembly polls on the plank of development and he had ensured progress in every nook and corner of the state.

Mr Yadav’s statement comes a day after UP minister Farid Mehfooz Kidwai suggested that a SP-BSP alliance will be effective in decimating the BJP in UP.

“God willing, a grand alliance will come into being here and we will definitely defeat the BJP and form our government,” he was quoted as having said.

The minister said that it was his “wish” that the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party — known as arch rivals since the past two decades — come together to defeat the BJP.

Significantly, the chief minister on Saturday had also told the bureaucracy that his party would return to power in 2017 and he would lead the government for the second term.

The Samajwadi Party, interestingly, had played a key role in bringing the JD(U) and RJD together in Bihar and it was the Samajwadi Party that pulled out of the alliance at the last minute.