A day after holding talks with Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh, Congress poll strategist Prashant Kishor on Monday held a closed-door meeting with Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, fuelling speculation that a grand alliance could be on the anvil for the 2017 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
Monday’s meeting assumes significance as the 43-year-old Chief Minister is expected to have a major say in ticket distribution and choice of seats to be contested by his party in case an alliance is cobbled together.
There has been speculation of a “maha gathbandhan” among erstwhile Janata Parivar parties and the Congress to check the BJP in its tracks.
Mr. Kishor met Akhilesh and was with him for nearly three hours, during which they are understood to have discussed the State’s political scenario.
However, Akhilesh sounded cautious when he said factors like who would benefit and who would lose in case of an alliance had to be considered.
Mr. Kishor’s back-to-back talks with Mulayam and Akhilesh come close on the heels of top leaders of socialist-leaning parties attending the SP’s silver jubilee meet — a move seen as an attempt by Mulayam to forge an alliance for the crucial polls hardly a few months away.
