A day after Samajwadi Party indicated it would contest 65 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh in 2024 polls, party chief Akhilesh Yadav said members of the INDIA bloc will not be disappointed and will be given proper honour and respect.
Yadav, who was here to attend a function on November 2, also said it is now clear that there will be an alliance only in the parliamentary elections, not in state assembly polls.
"In all the alliances which the Samajwadi Party has entered into so far, it has been its efforts to give full respect to its members. Today, I am saying this in front of you none of the alliance members were disappointed with SP earlier and nor will they be disappointed in the future," the SP chief told reporters.
During a meeting of its state executive committee also attended by Yadav in Lucknow on Wednesday, the SP, which is the main constituent of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) of opposition parties, indicated that it will contest on 65 seats leaving the remaining to its allies.
"The numbers (65) were given as the people who had come to the meeting had given suggestions that the SP should contest on so many seats or lay its claim on these seats. But, I am saying this to you that in all the alliances so far, the effort had been to see to it that none of the partners are disappointed," the SP chief said.
SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary, while confirming that the party president has given indications of the party contesting on 65 seats, on Wednesday said that he has asked for making preparations for all the 80 seats.
Exuding confidence, Yadav said, "Only our alliance and the PDA ('pichhra, Dalit and alpsankhyak') strategy will defeat the NDA as they have betrayed the people of the PDA." When asked about the recent spat with the Congress over seat sharing in Madhya Pradesh, Yadav said, "The issue of Madhya Pradesh has ended and it would be better if we do not raise it further."
"Maybe we got overconfident by sitting with some people that if they are talking to us they will take us along with them. Now, it is clear that there is no alliance at the state level, but the alliance at the national level," he stressed.
To a question on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal getting a notice from the ED, he said be it Kejriwal or Azam Khan or other legislators of the Samajwadi Party, if they raise the issues of the people, they will have cases against them.
"Arvind Kejriwal and Azam Khan's families are being harassed as the BJP feels that if they are crushed or demoralised, their entire party will be demoralised. But, we have full faith in the public and judiciary that they will get justice one day," the SP chief said.
On the talk in certain political quarters that the SP is not helping incarcerated Azam Khan and it is the Congress which is coming forward for him, Yadav said the party is fully with him.
He also said, without taking any name, that there cannot be a bigger enemy than those wanting to take the mileage of someone who is in trouble. UP Congress chief Ajay Rai had recently visited Sitapur jail to meet Azam Khan. But Khan refused to meet him, jail officials had said.
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