UP polls 2022: Sanjay Singh meets Akhilesh Yadav, talks on AAP-SP alliance and seat sharing

Lucknow, Nov 24: Ahead of the UP Assembly polls 2022, Aam Aadmi Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh met Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav for an alliance between the two parties. "We are talking to each other and are heading towards an alliance," he said.

The AAP had earlier tested poll waters in the 2014 and 2019 Parliamentary elections on some selected seats in UP without any success.

After coming to power in Delhi, it emerged as the main opposition party in Punjab and has been trying to expand its base in other states like Goa, Uttarakhand and Gujarat.

Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal had himself contested against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi in 2014 and stood second ahead of the Congress and the Samajwadi party nominees.

AAP had also contested three seats of Saharanpur, Aligarh and Gautam Budh Nagar in U.P. but could not do much.

The outcome of the U.P. assembly polls is considered important as it would reflect on the 2024 general election. The opposition sees an opportunity against the BJP in the state especially due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the SP and BSP have already launched their election campaign to woo various communities, the Congress under the leadership of its General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is sparing no effort to revive the party at the grassroots level.

Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM, AAP and over a dozen small caste-centric regional parties have also announced that they are entering the ring in the politically significant state.

Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party chief and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had recently announced that that his party will form alliance with smaller parties in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.