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Akhilesh Yadav refuses possibility of alliance with big parties

“The M-Y in our formula stands for Mahila (women) and Youth," said Akhilesh

PTI1_18_2020_000109A Akhilesh Yadav | PTI

Akhilesh Yadav has refused the possibility of an alliance with any big political party, saying that his experience with such parties has not been good. Speaking at a public dialogue in Lucknow today, Yadav said that he was keen to bring together small parties.

This public negation of an alliance rules out the possibility of the party coming together with the Congress to harness the anti-incumbency vote. Yadav specifically spoke of the Congress—which, though reduced to single digits in UP, remains a national party. 

Yadav said that though the parties the SP would ally with would be revealed later, he was sure that such a combination would win more than 400 seats. “If the BJP with its falsehoods can hope for more than 300 seats, then we will do better”, he said.

“The M-Y in our formula stands for Mahila (women) and Youth. It is they who will form the next Samajwadi Party government in the state”, said the former UP chief minister. The M-Y formula that the SP has banked on has stood for Muslims and Yadavs.

He said that his last experience with a political alliance (with the Bahujan Samaj Party in 2019), though unsuccessful, had given him experience.

On the issue of a tie-up with the party of Shivpal Yadav, he said that he was in constant touch with his once estranged uncle. “The alliance will be with the party and not with my uncle”, he said.

Yadav also touched upon the issue of getting a COVID-19 vaccine which he had earlier decried as the vaccine of the BJP. “I will take the vaccine only after all the state’s poor and youth get vaccinated…If there is a vaccine left, I will stand in the line for it”, said Yadav.

He also spoke of the BJP’s unwillingness to construct the Ram Mandir at the earliest possible. "They want to fight three elections on the issue. No one is opposed to the construction of the temple as it has been ruled by the Supreme Court. The BJP is deliberately delaying it," he said.

Yadav took a jibe at the current government’s spree of laying foundation stones- including for a university in Aligarh on Tuesday. “This government will not inaugurate any of the projects. There will be a new government in place”, he said.

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