Akhilesh Yadav gets party nod to decide strategy for 2019 elections

Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party national executive on Saturday authorised party president Akhilesh Yadav to take decisions on alliance and seat sharing for the general elections next year, a Samajwadi Party leader said.

Senior Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav said, "The main decision taken in the national executive is that party president Akhilesh Yadav has been authorised to take a decision on alliance and seat sharing for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls."

"The executive is of the view that elections should be held through ballot papers and not through EVMs," he told reporters in Lucknow.

Asked to elaborate on the discussions at the national meeting about the political scenario, Yadav parried a direct reply, saying, "I am telling you about the decisions not the discussions."

About absence of some party leaders, including Mohd Azam Khan from the meeting, he said, "Is it necessary that all should remain present? Ninety per cent of the members were present. Party president Akhilesh Yadav was also there."

On being asked as to what the party would do if the Election Commission did not accept their demand for polls through ballot papers, Yadav said Samajwadi leaders would sit at the doors of the Election Commission and resort to Satyagrah.