SP-Congress alliance will continue, focus will be on victory not seats: Akhilesh Yadav

Setting the stage for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said the alliance with its partners would continue in future polls, asserting that the formula will be "victory not seats."

Akhilesh was speaking at an event organised by Amar Ujala newspaper, where he was asked whether Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and he would be seen campaigning together in the coming elections. Yadav said his party has vast experience in running alliances and always ensured that its allies benefited from the arrangement.

"We have entered into many alliances. We have experience of alliances and the Samajwadi Party has always ensured gains for its allies. We have never betrayed anyone. The alliance that exists today will continue ahead," Yadav said.

He said that future alliance discussions would not revolve around bargaining for seats but around ensuring electoral success.

"There will not be a question of seats in the alliance. Even during the Lok Sabha elections, I had said that the issue was not about seats, the issue was about victory. The same formula will work again. The question will not be of seats, the question will be of victory," he said.

The remarks assume significance amid continued discussions over opposition unity and possible seat-sharing arrangements for the assembly election in Uttar Pradesh due next year.

Asked about the face of opposition, Yadav said it would be inflation, rising price of fuel, Agniveer youths, farmers, labourers and also 69,000 sikshamitras, who did not get a permanant job.

Asked to be specific, he said, "What is the need of a face for opposition. Inflation is itself a big face." Attacking the ruling party, he said, "Where the BJP ends, PDA - (pichhade, dalits, alpsankhyak, an acronym coined by Yadav for backwards, Dalit and minorities) starts from there," he said.

Yadav said PDA also stands for "Prem, Daya, Apnapan" (love, kindness, affection). Referring to the NEET paper leak, the SP chief said there were more victims of it than officially reckoned.

"If we take into account five members of 22 lakh NEET affected students, it will be 1.1 crore people who were affected due to the leak. These 1.1 crore people are our faces. Among those affected 4 lakh students are from Uttar Pradesh and over 20 lakh affected families," he said.

Asked about the party strategy to fight the BJP, he said, "I will not disclose our strategy as we are fighting those who are very powerful people." In the US-Iran war, Yadav said, "If India stood with Iran, this war would not have happened … The way in which our prime minister landed in Pakistan without any schedule, in a similar way had he landed in Iran, this war would not have happened. I say with full responsibility." Replying to a question about Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's statement that namaz will not be allowed on roads, Yadav said, "There is a law on what is to be done on the road or not. There should not be political scoring. BJP is the biggest 'adharmi party' (immoral)." "As far as roads are concerned, they should be broadened... They (BJP) are raising the issue so that our discussion goes to another direction on other matters," he said.

"Who is offering namaz on roads? If someone is and there is shortage of space... then what is the problem... They want us to get caught up somewhere else. We will not fall in their trap. We will first ask about NEET and other issues," Yadav said.

(With PTI inputs)