The Samajwadi Party (SP) in Maharashtra has declared that it is willing to tie up with the Congress-NCP alliance in the state for the assembly polls due in October.
“We are open to a tie up with the Congress-NCP and other secular forces to keep communal parties out,” said state SP president Abu Asim Azmi on Wednesday. The party has 4 MLAs in the current assembly.
However, both the parties reacted with caution. “We are always open to talks with secular parties but this decision will be taken by the party high command,”said Congress spokesperson Anant Gadgil. “We have not yet been approached and finally the coordination committee of the Congress-NCP will have to take a decision,”said NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik.
Mr Azmi also said that if the Congress-NCP alliance was not ready to accommodate them, the SP would be willing to be part of the Third Front formation. “If no alliance is formed at all, we will contest around 40 seats on our own strength,” Mr Azmi said.
Mr Azmi said that he did not expect the saffron sweep during the Lok Sabha elections to repeat itself in the assembly polls. “People had placed great hopes in Prime Minister Narendra Modi but now they have seen he does not have a magic want. Price rise has not been controlled. In fact, the poor are worse off and this will impact the polls,” he said.
