Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said the Congress had kept him waiting too long and his party would contest the November 28 elections in Madhya Pradesh either alone or in alliance with the Gondvana Gantantra Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The SP did not win any of the state’s 230 Assembly seats in the 2013 elections and was runners-up in two but Akhilesh told party workers at a meeting he had waited long enough for an understanding with the Congress.

“The SP doesn’t wait so long for anybody. You must keep in mind that we are the fourth-largest party in MP. Now we will initiate talks on the MP elections with the GGP and (Mayawati’s) BSP,” the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.

“Mayawati has already declared that her BSP wouldn’t ally with the Congress in MP. We will soon start announcing the SP candidates in the poll-bound state.”

The GGP has a presence in 60 seats in the Mahakaushal and Vindhya regions of Madhya Pradesh. The Election Commission on Saturday announced a single-phase poll in the state on November 28.

Mayawati, also a former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, had earlier this week accused Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh of creating hurdles in the way of sharing seats for the Madhya Pradesh polls and declared the BSP would contest alone.

SP sources said Akhilesh has decided to keep the Congress at bay to avoid annoying Mayawati as he prepares to reach a seat-share deal with the BSP in Uttar Pradesh in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

“The Congress is not willing to give sufficient number of seats to the SP or the BSP in MP. Initially, Mayawati had demanded 100 seats and Akhilesh wanted to contest in 30. The remaining 100 seats were left for the Congress. Later, the BSP came down to 30 and the SP to 10. But the Congress believes it is in a good position in MP and is ready to give only 12 seats to the BSP and five to the SP. On the other hand, contesting in MP is less important for Akhilesh than keeping Mayawati in good humour in UP. This is why he is ready to forget his friendship with Congress president Rahul Gandhi,” an SP leader said.

In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Rahul and Akhilesh had organised several public meetings and road shows together, trying to woo the voters with the slogan “Apne UP Ke Ladke” (our own boys of Uttar Pradesh).

The SP had won only 47 of the 403 seats and the Congress seven.