Shivpal Yadav dubs SP-BSP tie up ‘alliance of thugs', may support Congress

Lucknow, Jan 13: Shivpal Yadav, who severed ties with the Samajwadi Party after a bitter feud with Akhilesh Yadav, on Sunday said his party - the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) - would support the Congress if the grand old party reaches out to them.

BSP chief Mayawati and SP president Akhilesh Singh Yadav yesterday announced that their parties would contest 38 seats each in Uttar Pradesh in the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections and leave out two seats - Amethi and Rae Bareily - for the Congress.

"This alliance is a 'Thugbandhan'(an alliance of thugs) and is for money. It is possible that money must have been taken before forging the alliance," Yadav told news agency ANI.

Hours after the SP and BSP announced their alliance in Uttar Pradesh, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said in Dubai that his party would fight the elections in the state alone with its "full capacity".

On the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) supporting the Congress, Shivpal said, "There have been no talks with the Congress party as yet. The Congress is also a secular party and if it approaches us to defeat the BJP, we will lend our support," he said.

Politically, Uttar Pradesh is a significant state as it sends maximum number of MPs to Parliament. In 2014 general elections, the BJP had won 71 seats in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress had won two seats while SP won five. The BSP drew a blank.