Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi.
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: In a development that further weakened the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has decided to go alone in elections to the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
SP’s Maharashtra unit President and MLA Abu Asim Azmi said that the party will go alone. “We will contest around 150 seats (of the total 227 seats)…we all be contesting independently.” Azmi told reporters in Mumbai on Wednesday.
“I am a party worker. No decision is taken without the permission and consent of the party's national president Akhilesh Yadav or the party's senior leaders,” he added.
Azmi also said that the Samajwadi Party would contest local civic body elections throughout Maharashtra, but has decided not to ally with any party due to betrayals in the past.
“We are a secular party, and we are against any split in secular votes. However, the Congress wishes to marginalise our party, and our attempts to ally with the Congress were thwarted by the Congress itself in the past by changing previous alliance decisions at the last minute. Hence, the Samajwadi Party has decided against allying with the MVA or any other group,” he said.