1996 Cong-BSP alliance in UP was a ''sell-out'': Rahul

Khautauli, UP, Mar 19 (UNI) Terming as a ''sell-out'' the 1996 alliance of the Congress with the BSP in Uttar Pradesh, Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi today said there would be no more ''blanket alliances'' like this one in the future.

''The 1996 alliance was a sell-out and a blanket one,'' Mr Gandhi told media here on his way to Muzaffarnagar on the second day of his three-day whistle-stop tour of Western UP to campaign for the Assembly elections.

On whether the Congress would have alliances in the upcoming UP elections, he said the party was in discussion with Mr Ajit Singh's RLD and Mr V P Singh's Jan Morcha.

He, however, added ''There would be future alliances with other regional parties but not as the one we had in 1996.'' Mr Gandhi said the Congress downfall in UP in 1996 was due to an organisational problem and the BJP, BSP and other regional parties were not responsible for its poor position in the state.

To a question, he said: ''UP will not remain like this where people are mostly poor after the Congress comes to power.

On the caste issue which played an important role in UP, he said, ''Though caste in everything in the state, we will try to build young leaders irrespective of their religion, here as well as everywhere alse.'' UNI AN HS HS1639