SP's tie-up with RJD, LJP to have no impact in UP: Congress

Squarely blaming the SP for a pre-poll tie-up not materialising in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress today asserted that the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led party's recently forged alliance with RJD and LJP will cut no ice in the state.

Squarely blaming the SP for a pre-poll tie-up not materialising in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress on Sunday asserted that the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led party's recently forged alliance with RJD and LJP will cut no ice in the state.

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"Our pre-poll alliance with the SP did not materialise as it was more concerned about its own share of seats than putting up an effective fight to the communal forces represented by the BJP," Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Rita Bahuguna Joshi told reporters here.

She said initially the Congress tried to overlook the SP's "self-seeking" attitude but when the latter went on to declare its candidates for most of the seats and even joined hands with former BJP leader Kalyan Singh "without even consulting us, we got worried".

"We have now decided to fight 65 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Candidates for 56 seats have been already declared. The remaining are likely to be finalised by the end of this month", the UPCC president said.

She asserted that the SP's recently forged alliance with RJD and LJP, both of which are Bihar-based parties, will have no impact in UP "as they have hardly any presence here."

She also claimed that the possible division of votes between the Congress and the SP will not benefit the ruling BSP "which is bound to receive a drubbing because of its failure to check corruption and improve law and order during the last two years of its rule."