Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav has supported the statement of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for Opposition unity at the national level, stressing that regional parties should take the lead in the States where they had a strong presence.
“The party which is strong in the State should be kept in forefront while contesting the elections there,” reads a statement issued by the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Tuesday evening. It does not mention the Congress party.
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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao and other parties also want the same to happen, Mr. Yadav said.
‘Congress must sacrifice’
On Monday, the West Bengal CM had said that the Congress and regional parties should be prepared to support each other in their strongholds, directly cautioning that the Congress must be prepared for some “sacrifice”.
“Wherever the Congress is strong, in their respective 200 seats what we have calculated, let them fight, we will support them. But they have to support other political parties as well. If you want to achieve something good, then you have to sacrifice in certain areas,” Ms. Banerjee had said in Kolkata.
Shift on Congress
Mr. Yadav’s statement signals a clear shift from the past few months, when he was seen targeting the Congress. “Both the BJP and the Congress are the same and the SP is ruling out any tactical understanding or alliance with the grand old party,” he had said earlier, also indicating that the SP planned to name a candidate for the Amethi seat, a Congress pocket borough represented till 2019 by the Gandhi family which the SP had left uncontested for almost three decades.
However, after the Karnataka Assembly election results, Mr. Yadav seemed to change his tune, describing the Congress’ victory as ‘the beginning of the end’ for the BJP, and congratulating the people of Karnataka for defeating the saffron party. “The mandate is of new positive India against inflation, unemployment, corruption and animosity,” the SP leader said.
