New Delhi: The prospect of a “mahagathbandhan” (grand alliance) in Uttar Pradesh collapsed on Thursday with the Samajwadi Party rejecting any alliance with the Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and announcing that it would contest 300 of 403 Assembly seats, while the other 103 would be given to the Congress.
The SP-RLD talks hit a roadblock Thursday when RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary demanded not less than 30 seats, while the Akhilesh Yadav-led party was ready to offer only 22 seats. Incidentally, while the SP spoke of an alliance with the Congress, a few issues are still to be resolved between them.
Some of these contentious issues include the Assembly seats in Rae Bareli and Amethi that are now held by SP. The Congress wants all Assembly seats in these two key constituencies, that are represented in Parliament by Sonia and Rahul Gandhi respectively, but the SP is unwilling to let go of its sitting berths. The SP is also unwilling to tie up with RLD as the Samajwadis fear that distrust between Jats and Muslims in western UP post Muzaffarnagar riots would hit its minority votebank.
SP leaders have argued that Muslims in western UP are not likely to support the RLD and this could eventually have an adverse impact on the SP’s Muslim votebank across the state. “We feel an alliance with Congress is the best in the state,” a senior SP leader said.
