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Won’t let BJP rule by proxy in UP: Akhilesh hints at other alliance possibility
With exit polls pointing to a hung House, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said on Thursday he would not allow the BJP to rule by proxy, hinting at the possibility of tying up with other parties.
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With exit polls pointing to a hung House, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said on Thursday he would not allow the BJP to rule by proxy, hinting at the possibility of tying up with other parties.
The Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party is the only remaining big player in the state but when asked about a possible tie-up, Yadav remained ambiguous.
“I always respected her (Mayawati), and because of this many may construe that there could be an alliance (with BSP). But it’s hard to say anything about the possibility of joining hands (with her)...,” Yadav told BBC Hindi.
He said the BJP was a bigger rival than the BSP.
While all exit polls put the BJP ahead in the country’s largest state, most predicted a hung House in Uttar Pradesh, where voting was staggered in seven phases spread over a month.
Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, which joined hands with the Congress, would finish behind the BJP, the polls said. The BSP would finish third.
Yadav, however, insisted the mandate would be clear and that, too, in favour of the SP-Congress. “No, it is not going to be a hung assembly,” he said in the Facebook chat with BBC Hindi.
No one would want president’s rule in Uttar Pradesh and “that the BJP governs the state through a remote control”, he said.
For more on the assembly elections, click here.
