Will Samajwadi Party's alliance with Congress continue? SP chief Akhilesh Yadav breaks his silence

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said his party's alliance with the Congress will continue, a day after his party declared tickets for six of the 10 Uttar Pradesh assembly seats where bypolls are due later this year.

Yadav's statement came while he was speaking to reporters during his visit to Uttar Pradesh's Etawah to pay tributes to his father and Samajwadi Party (SP) founder Mulayam Singh Yadav on his death anniversary.

Asked about the distribution of party tickets for the bypolls, Akhilesh Yadav said, "I only want to say that the INDIA bloc will be there. SP and Congress alliance will remain intact..." He, however, did not elaborate and said this was not the time to discuss politics.

On being asked about his reaction to Haryana poll results, he said, "We will discuss this when we meet again." In an apparent snub to ally Congress after its unsatisfactory show in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir assembly poll, the SP on Wednesday announced candidates for six assembly seats.

The Congress has been demanding five seats in the bypolls.

After the SP named its candidates for the Karhal (Mainpuri), Sisamau (Kanpur city), Milkipur (Ayodhya), Katehari (Ambedkar Nagar), Phulpur (Prayagraj) and Majhwan (Mirzapur) constituencies, party spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary had said any seat sharing arrangement with the Congress will be decided by party chief Akhilesh Yadav. The Congress has been demanding the Phulpur and Majhwan seats besides Ghaziabad, Khair (Aligarh), and Meerapur (Muzaffarnagar).

A by-election is also due in Kundarki (Moradabad). The Congress, which was expected to make a comeback in Haryana, got 37 of the 90 seats as the BJP won a third consecutive term with a score of 48.

In Jammu and Kashmir, the NC-Congress alliance bagged 49 of the 90 seats but the grand old party won only six of the 32 it contested. Asked about SP's announcement, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai told PTI, "We have submitted a proposal about contesting 5 of the 10 seats to the high command. These were the seats won by BJP earlier." 

According to SP's official list, the party named Tej Pratap Yadav from Karhal, Naseem Solanki from Sisamau, Mustafa Siddiqui from Phulpur, Ajit Prasad from Milkipur, Shobhawati Verma from Katehari and Jyoti Bind from Majhwan.

Nine of these seats fell vacant after their respective MLAs were elected as MPs in the Lok Sabha polls, while in Sisamau, the bypoll is being held due to the disqualification of SP MLA Irfan Solanki, who was convicted in a criminal case.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from PTI)

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