'SP not to join hands with BJP'

Samajwadi Party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav on Monday said his party will, under no circumstances, align with the Bharatiya Janata Party. SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s praise of the BJP leader L K Advani should not be seen as a political comment, he said.

Ram Gopal said there was nothing wrong in praising a leader if he had a tall personality.
“What Mulayam Singh Yadav had said was a fact. Advani is a tall personality in politics,” said the SP leader. It does not mean that the SP will join hands with the BJP, he added.

“There is no question of joining hands with the BJP. We have ideological differences.”

Mulayam had caused a flutter in political circles when he recently heaped praise on the senior BJP leader L K Advani and termed him as the ‘tallest leader’ in the country.

“Advani is the tallest leader in the country. He never tells lies,” Mulayam had said.

He had added that Advani and other saffron leaders had told him that they wanted the SP government to ‘stay and do well’ in the state.

Earlier also the SP supremo had extended the hand of friendship to the BJP while speaking in the Lok Sabha.

He had reportedly remarked that he would have no problem with the BJP if it changed its stand on Kashmir, Ram Temple-Babri Masjid and its attitude toward Muslims.