Samajwadi Party (SP) founder Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday showed his displeasure at the alliance forged by his son and party president Akhilesh Yadav with the Bahujan Samaj Party.
Addressing party workers at the SP headquarters in Lucknow, Mr. Mulayam Singh made clear that he was unhappy with Ms. Mayawati’s BSP being given half of the seats in the alliance in Uttar Pradesh in the coming Lok Sabha polls.
He reportedly told the party workers that the BJP's election preparation was better.
The remarks come days after Mr. Mulayam Singh created a stir in Parliament, saying he wished that Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns to power .
Mr. Akhilesh Yadav and Ms. Mayawati had jointly announced the alliance in January, saying the SP and the BSP will contest 38 seats each out of the 80 in Uttar Pradesh.
However, in the list released on Thursday, the SP will fight only 37 seats and the BSP 38.
The two parties named the seats distributed among them in a statement signed by SP president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati.
Key constituencies
The 37 seats in the SP quota include Kairana, Moradabad, Sambhal, Rampur, Mainpuri, Firozabad, Badaun, Bareilly, Lucknow, Etawah, Kanpur, Kannauj, Jhansi, Banda, Allahabad, Kaushambi, Phulpur, Faizabad, Gonda, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Varanasi and Mirzapur.
The BSP will contest from Saharanpur, Bijnor, Nagina, Aligarh, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Dhaurahara, Sitapur, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Kaiserganj, Basti, Salempur, Jaunpur, Bhadohi and Deoria, among other constituencies.
Now, tell me what is the basis for giving away half the seats. Now we have only half the seats left. Our party was stronger,” Mr. Mulayam Singh said.
“We are strong; our men are weakening the party. What a strong party we had made, and I became the CM and the defence minister as well,” he said, suggesting that the SP had seen better days under him.
The SP patriarch urged the workers to apply to him for the tickets. “How many of you have given applications to me? Nobody. Then how will you get the ticket. Akhilesh will give the ticket, but I can change it,” he said.
