No talks on seat-sharing with BSP, says Akhilesh Yadav

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has said that seat-sharing with the BSP would be discussed at the appropriate time.

“There has been no decision to my knowledge in this regard,” he said reacting to reports of the BSP wanting 40 out of 80 seats for itself in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

“Whatever seats are to be given will be decided when talks are initiated. We will discuss this at the appropriate time,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

Mr Akhilesh Yadav said that no discussions had taken place as yet. We are Samajwadis, and we have a big heart. We will not let minor issues come between us”, he said.

Mr Yadav emphasised that the coming together of likeminded forces had rattled the BJP, which had suffered a humiliating defeat in recent by-elections in Kairana and Noorpur recently.

“They (BJP) tried to fan communal passions but people doused their intentions by voting against BJP,” he said.

He alleged that the BJP had tried to divert the people’s attention from core issues but the anger of the people was visible from the results despite the fact that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a road show on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway on May 27, a day before polling in Kairana, in an obvious attempt to influence the byelection.

Mr Akhilesh Yadav, while referring to upcoming assembly elections in other states, said “The SP will contest all the seats in MP and we are preparing for polls in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand”.

Replying to a question, however, he said that he had no information of an alliance between Congress and BSP in Madhya Prad-esh. “We are preparing to contest all 230 seats in MP,” he stated.

The Samajwadi Party chief also said that the party was prepared for the 2019 polls and the process was on for selecting pros-pective candidates. He said that he expects that the general elections wo-uld be held early and simultaneously with Asse-mbly polls of some states.