Akhilesh to go solo in next UP assembly polls

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday categorically ruled out any possibility of electoral alliance with the BSP in the next Uttar Pradesh assembly polls in 2022 and said that his party would go ''solo'' in the elections.

''SP will not have an alliance with any party in the next assembly polls...we will fight the elections on our own,'' Akhilesh said while speaking to reporters here.

The SP president, however, refrained from making any comment on BSP supremo Mayawati with whom his party had struck an electoral alliance in the recent Lok Sabha polls. It, however, failed to click and the SP could win only five seats while the BSP managed to romp home on ten seats.

BSP supremo Mayawati had, soon after the LS results, walked away from the alliance but had said that the doors of the electoral alliance were not fully closed, hinting that the two arch-rivals could once again come together in 2022.

Akhilesh also slammed the state government for denying him permission to visit Rampur, about 325 kilometres from here, to join a party sponsored demonstration in protest against what the SP termed ''witch hunt'' against senior party leader Azam Khan.

He said that he had sought permission from the Rampur district administration to go there and hold a 'dharna'. ''Azam Khan is being persecuted by the state government...we will not allow that and continue to protest,'' he said.

The SP president said that the BJP government had failed to ensure the safety of the common people and the crime graph had soared under the present regime.