Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and LJP supremo and Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Tuesday had a long chat ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections next year.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and LJP supremo and Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Tuesday had a long chat ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections next year.
While the LJP is a constituent of the BJP-led NDA and had fought the Bihar Assembly polls together under the banner of NDA, the Samajwadi Party had put up candidates against the JD(U)-RJD-Congress combine and the NDA, but failed to open its account.
Mr Yadav and Mr Paswan met in the Parliament House during the day.
While it is unclear whether the BJP will fight the UP polls under the NDA and take its allies together to defeat the SP, BSP and the Congress, the LJP could be useful to the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led party to dent the BSP whose leaders are quitting in protest against Ms Mayawati.
If the BJP decides to go alone after winning over 70 of the total 80 Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, then its allies are free to go anywhere. The Shiv Sena has already decided to fight a few seats in the UP polls on its own.
Detractors of the SP feel that Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav had tried to help the BJP in the Bihar elections by fielding the candidates against the Nitish Kumar-Lalu Prasad Yadav-led front.
