Lucknow: Though miffed over denial of seats by Congress in the upcoming Haryana assembly polls, the Samajwadi Party (SP), which was part of the I.N.D.I.A alliance, has decided to support the grand old party in the state, as it did not want any division in 'anti-BJP' votes.
SP sources, however, said that party president Akhilesh Yadav has not decided whether to campaign for the Congress candidates in Haryana as of yet.
‘’Akhilesh Yadav may go to Jammu & Kashmir to campaign in favour of the SP nominees if the state unit of the party so desires,’’ a senior SP leader said here on Monday.
The leader slammed the Congress for not sparing any seat for the SP in Haryana. ‘’We had initially demanded 17 seats in Haryana but later scaled it down to five... yet the Congress did not leave any seat for us,’’ the leader said.
He said that Congress general secretary K C Venugopal had informed Akhilesh Yadav that the grand old party would leave a few seats for SP. ‘’Congress did not follow the coalition dharma... we have however decided to support the Congress in Haryana as we do not want any division in the anti-BJP votes,’’ he added.
SP had earlier said that it would field its candidates in 20 seats in the Jammu & Kashmir assembly polls, and added that Akhilesh Yadav might campaign there in favour of the party nominees.
SP has included its Ayodhya MP Awadhesh Prasad in the list of its star campaigners in the state. Besides, Kairana MP Iqra Hasan and some others were also in the list of star campaigners. Congress and the National Conference (NC) are contesting the assembly polls in alliance in Jammu and Kashmir.
Published 16 September 2024, 13:15 IST