Mulayam Singh Yadav rules out 2019 tieups, snubs Akhilesh

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav said on Sunday that there was no need for the party to enter into any alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

This is in contradiction to the Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav’s statement that he was ready for an alliance to defeat the BJP in 2019. Akhilesh Yadav was responding to BSP president Mayawati’s readiness to ally with like-minded parties to defeat the BJP.

Mulayam Singh Yadav said, “There is no need for any alliance now. The Samajwadi Party is capable of defeating the BJP on its own.”

UPCC president Raj Babbar said on Sunday that the Congress has not taken any decision on the 2019 elections. “We are meeting our party workers and leaders and we will have to respect their views on this issue”, he said.

Mr Babbar and other senior leaders had to face the wrath of party workers at a meeting here on Sunday. The party workers squarely blamed the decision of the alliance for the Congress rout in the elections.

Mulayam Singh, while talking to reporters in Etawah, also blamed the media and voters for the party’s electoral loss in Uttar Pradesh.

“The Akhilesh Yadav government performed well, but the voters defeated the party. The voters were misled by the campaign of “Chal Modi, Chal Modi”, and they went with the BJP. The media only gave prominence to the family feud inside the Samajwadi Party. If the media had shown anarchy during the SP rule, it should have highlighted the same during regime of other parties as well,” he said.

The SP leader also said that whatever his next step is, it would be in the interest of the party and the people of the state.