The 'glue' that Akhilesh ''got'' from BJP

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav feels that his party was decimated by the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2017 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh as he did not have the ''glue'', that the saffron party possessed.

''We did everything to develop the state... People also appreciated our work but we lost because we did not have the glue,'', Akhilesh said while addressing a 'chaupal' (gathering of people) in the state's Kannauj district, about 150 kilometres from Lucknow, on Friday.

''Now we have got the glue and it is now the turn of the BJP to be decimated in the 2019 LS polls,'' he said.

Akhilesh was referring to the alliance stitched by the BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha and 2017 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

''BJP too has several alliance partners... We fought alone... After the three UP by-polls (which the BJP lost)... We too have got the arithmetic right... Thanks to the BJP... We defeated them in the bastions of UP chief minister (Gorakhpur) and deputy chief minister (Phulpur),'' he remarked hinting about his party's alliance with the BSP in the next general elections.

The SP president said that the BJP had lost many of its alliance partners in the past few months.

Akhilesh's wife Dimple Yadav, the sitting MP from Kannauj seat, was also present at the meeting. The SP president has indicated that he will be contesting from Kannauj in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.