Akhilesh hints at joining hands with KCR

Upset over the exclusion of the lone party legislator in the Madhya Pradesh ministry, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday hinted at joining hands with the TDP in forming a grand alliance sans Congress.

"The Congress has cleared the way for us by not including our MLA in the Madhya Pradesh ministry, though he had supported the party.... we are thankful to it for that," a fuming Akhilesh said in a sarcastic tone.

The Samajwadi Party leader said that he would be travelling to Hyderabad in the first week of January next year to meet Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to "discuss the alliance."

"Some kind of grand alliance will definitely be formed to counter the BJP in 2019," Akhilesh remarked.

The Telangana chief minister has been meeting the chief ministers of Opposition-ruled states to explore the possibility of a "non-BJP, non-Congress" grand alliance.

He was scheduled to meet Akhilesh and BSP supremo Mayawati in Delhi on Wednesday, but the meeting could not materialise.

Earlier, too, both SP and BSP had hinted that they were close to sealing their alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 to counter the BJP in the state, that sends 80 members to the lower house. The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) of Ajit Singh was also part of the grand alliance.

Sources said that the seat-sharing formula has been "almost" finalised between the two regional satraps. The SP would contest 37 seats, while the BSP would be given 38 seats. Three seats would be given to the RLD.