Alliance in the cards? Sheila Dikshit 'ready to step aside' for Akhilesh as UP CM face
The former Delhi CM said she would be happy to step aside for Akhilesh Yadav.
New Delhi: Sheila Diskhit, who has been projected as the Congress’ Chief Ministerial face for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections on Wednesday said she would ‘be happy’ to have Akhilesh Yadav as the CM candidate if the her party goes for an alliance with the Samajwadi Party.
The former Chief Minister told NDTV that she thought Akhilesh is a “much better” Chief Ministerial candidate for the politically crucial state. She however clarified that no final call has been taken on an alliance with the SP which is currently embroiled in a bitter power tussle between two factions.
In November, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had made it clear to the Samajwadi Party that he is willing to consider an alliance in Uttar Pradesh only if Akhilesh Yadav is given full command of the party.
Akhilesh too had indicated that he was open to the idea of allying with the Congress, but his father and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav had clearly ruled out any pre-poll alliance. This is also seen as one of the reasons for the growing estrangement between the father and son duo.
The Samajwadi Party is on a brink of a split, with Akhilesh and Mulayam divided into two camps and fighting over their party symbol the cycle. However, the two factions tried to hammer out a truce on Tuesday, with Akhilesh even holding talks with his father for over two hours, but nothing conclusive came out of it.