SP hints at BJP alliance for UP

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Fear of a hung Assembly after next year’s state polls in Uttar Pradesh appears to be catching up with contenders, with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Sunday dropping hints that his party would not shy away from taking help of the Bharatiya Janata Party in forming a government in the state.
However, the Samajwadi Party chief, well aware of the facts that the Muslims in the state hold the trump card, conditioned any possibility of alliance with the BJP only if the saffron party changed its attitude towards the minority community.
Clearly identifying the Congress a political foe in the state, Mr Yadav on Sunday made attempts to drive the point that the “BJP was a lesser evil in UP vis-à-vis Muslims”.
“When the BJP was in power in UP least atrocities were committed against the Muslims unlike the Congress. It was due to the SP keeping a check on the BJP but the Congress has no fears of any,” said Mr Yadav, who, however, rushed in to clarify that he was talking of UP only and not Gujarat where “the chief minister had played a role in the riots”.
The Samajwadi Party chief even said that he would find a way out to forge an Opposition unit as its lack is being exploited by the Congress.
Mr Yadav is no stranger to the BJP, as the expelled SP leader Amar Singh, in one of his blog posts, had disclosed that the SP chief had become the chief minister of UP third time with the behind-the-scene help of the saffron party.
The Samajwadi Party chief had further entered into a tieup with former chief minister Kalyan Singh, though he had to sever his association only when the Liberhan Commission indicted the former BJP leader in the demolition of Babri mosque.
However, Mr Yadav has firmly shut the door for any tieup with the RLD, saying that the Ajit Singh-led party should rather merge with the SP.
The Uttar Pradesh state elections is set for the summer next year and leaders cutting across the party lines appear apprehensive of a hung Assembly.
Though the Congress and SP each claim to be in straight contest with the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party, political observers are of the opinion that the state could have three-way contest, while the BJP is also trying its best to revive its fortune.