After Maya, now SP too dumps Congress

After BSP supremo Mayawati dumped the Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday ruled out any understanding with the grand old party in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

‘’We wanted to contest the elections in MP and Rajasthan in alliance with the Congress but the latter did not show any inclination in this respect,’’ Akhilesh said in an informal chat with reporters here on Saturday.

‘’Congress has not spoken to us about the alliance....we waited for their response for a long time....we will not wait any more,’’ the SP supremo went on to add.

He said that his party would either go it alone in the Assembly elections in MP and Rajasthan or would ally with some local outfits. Akhilesh also expressed his desire to have an alliance with the BSP in the elections.

The SP leader said that the Congress should take the ‘’initiative’’ to forge electoral alliances to counter the BJP.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi had a few days back said that his party was in talks with the SP for an electoral alliance in MP.

Congress and SP had fought the 2017 UP Assembly elections in an alliance but it failed to click and both parties suffered serious setbacks.

SP has pockets of influence in MP districts bordering UP. The party had four seats in the outgoing MP Assembly.

Mayawati had also recently declared that her party would go it alone in the forthcoming Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan Assembly elections.