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SP: our utility for Congress ended after trust vote

New Delhi: In an indication of its souring relations with the Congress, the Samajwadi Party on Thursday accused its new-found ally of virtually adopting a “use-and-throw” policy and said their future relations would depend on “post-poll dynamics.”

“Our utility for the Congress ended on July 22 itself when it won the trust vote. It follows a need-based relationship where only numbers matter,” SP general secretary Amar Singh told PTI here.

He said the future of the political tie-up would entirely “depend on post-poll dynamics, with numbers playing a major role.”

Despite the Congress failing to fulfil the SP’s “reasonable demands on political and economic issues,” the party would continue to support it from outside, as “I see some ray of hope in Soniaji and Rahul,” Mr. Singh said.

The seat-sharing talks with the Congress would now be restricted to Uttar Pradesh only. “Now we will not ask for seats in Madhya Pradesh. On the one hand, they break our MLAs and on the other we discuss seat-sharing,” he said.

He claimed that while SP was a strong force in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress was asking for 31 seats. “They want us to accommodate them in U.P., but they are not accommodating us in M.P.,” he said. — PTI

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