Rebel BSP leaders to join Samajwadi Party, says Akhilesh Yadav
Yadav ruled out any alliance with bigger parties. “The experience with both Congress (in 2017 assembly polls) and BSP (in 2019 Lok Sabha polls) was bitter. We will ally with small parties,” he said
Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said rebel Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) lawmakers will join his Samajwadi Party (SP) amid reports that nine of them have met him. He acknowledged the meeting did take place but did not elaborate on what transpired and how many rebels met him.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav. (PTI)
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“They (BSP rebels) will join Samajwadi Party soon,” Yadav told TV news channel Aaj Tak. He added many senior leaders have met him and others were in touch with him. “...they want to join SP and want to contest elections...”
There was no immediate response from the BSP, which contested the 2019 national polls in Uttar Pradesh in alliance with the SP.
Akhilesh Yadav said the people of Uttar Pradesh, where elections are due next year, want the Bharatiya Janata Party government out. He added the people are distressed over alleged corruption, Covid mismanagement and that the SP will win.
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Yadav ruled out any alliance with bigger parties. “The experience with both Congress (in 2017 assembly polls) and BSP (in 2019 Lok Sabha polls) was bitter. We will ally with small parties.”
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Yadav ruled out any alliance with bigger parties. “The experience with both Congress (in 2017 assembly polls) and BSP (in 2019 Lok Sabha polls) was bitter. We will ally with small parties.”
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He said there have been no talks with Om Prakash Rajbhar of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party or All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen of Asaduddin Owaisi. Yadav said if any small party wants to talk, the SP is open to the idea.
Yadav said the SP will not field a candidate against his uncle, Shivpal Yadav, who heads Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia.
Pankaj Jaiswal is Bureau Chief, Uttar Pradesh. He covers-analyses politics, and assists Hindustan Times reporters across the state. He has 30 years of experience in print media reporting. Based in Lucknow, he started his journalism career at a national English daily in Kanpur after graduating from Christ Church College. He joined Hindustan Times, Lucknow edition, as part of the launch team in 1997. He’s covered everything from rural distress to science, environment, wildlife, and crime. He has travelled extensively in Uttar Pradesh for rural, development, political, and election reporting. His continued interest in rural issues, rural distress, and development journalism has fetched him a handful of prestigious awards and fellowships. Pankaj is a photojournalist too. He clinched the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting—First Prize in 2009 and Third Prize in 2006—for exposing Bundelkhand’s devastating drought and distress: crop failures, farm suicides, migration, debt, and the injustice of meagre compensation cheques between Rs 10 and Rs 20 to farmers by the government from crop loss. He also has been awarded with Hindustan Times internal 'Journalist of the Month' citation over half a dozen times. His relentless reporting in Hindustan Times pulled the Bundelkhand crisis out of obscurity and forced it into the national spotlight, prompting media and government action on one of India’s most neglected regions. Over a decade, he filed hundreds of hard-hitting stories, travelling repeatedly from Lucknow deep into Bundelkhand. He also received the Special Mention KC Kulish International Award 2009. Pankaj also did long-haul political reporting on the most intense political family feud—’The Yadav Family Feud’—between 2016 and 2022.
