Samajwadi Party to contest five seats in Gujarat

Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party will contest five Assembly seats of the 182 in Gujarat and will back the Congress in the other seats, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said today.

He said the party did not want a split in the anti-BJP votes and hence would contest only the seats where it has got strong organisational base.

The Congress and the Samajwadi Party had struck an alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the assembly elections earlier this year. The Congress had contested 105 of the 403 seats while the SP battled it out in 298 seats.

Asked if he would campaign in Gujarat, the SP chief said, “I will campaign where our candidates are in the fray. If any other party approaches me, I can campaign for it.” 

Taking a dig over the delay in the construction of the Metro Rail in Ahmedabad, he said he fulfilled the dream of a Metro Rail in Uttar Pradesh when he led the state.

Felicitating the office bearers of the Allahabad University Students Union, now controlled by the Samajwadi Party’s youth wing Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha, the 44-year-old said the election victory showed how the young were aligning themselves with his party.

“We made the best and the fastest Expressway in the country but we will never be called nationalists… That is how the BJP perceives its political opponents,” he said. 

When asked about the allegations of Narendra Patel, an activist of Hardik Patel-led Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, that he was offered Rs 1 crore for joining the BJP, Yadav took a swipe at the saffron party, saying it was the “most honest” party. “How can it do so?”

He also “advised” the mediapersons not to run the story, “otherwise your channel will be closed”.