INDIA bloc members will be given proper respect: Akhilesh

Saharanpur : Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav has said that the members of the INDIA bloc will not be disappointed and will be given proper honour and respect.

This comes a day after he had announced that SP would contest 65 seats in Uttar Pradesh.

Yadav, who was in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur to attend a private function on Thursday evening, also said it is now clear that there will be an alliance only in the parliamentary elections, not in state assembly polls.

“In all the alliances which the Samajwadi Party has entered into so far, it has given full respect to its members. Today, I am saying this in front of you that none of the alliance members were disappointed with SP earlier and nor will they be disappointed in the future,” the SP chief told reporters.

“The numbers (65) were given as the people who had come to the meeting had given suggestions that the SP should contest on so many seats or lay its claim on these seats. But I am saying this to you that in all the alliances so far, the effort had been to see to it that none of the partners are disappointed,” the SP chief said.

Exuding confidence, Yadav said, “Only our alliance and the PDA (‘pichhra, Dalit and alpsankhyak’) strategy will defeat the NDA as they have betrayed the people of the PDA.”

When asked about the recent spat with the Congress over seat sharing in Madhya Pradesh, Yadav said, “The issue of Madhya Pradesh has ended and it would be better if we do not raise it further. Maybe we got overconfident by sitting with some people that if they are talking to us they will take us along with them. Now, it is clear that there is no alliance at the state level, but the alliance at the national level.”

About Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal getting a notice from the ED, Akhilesh said be it Kejriwal or Azam Khan or other legislators of the Samajwadi Party, if they raise the issues of the people, they will have cases against them.

“Arvind Kejriwal and Azam Khan’s families are being harassed as the BJP feels that if they are crushed or demoralised, their entire party will be demoralised. But we have full faith in the public and judiciary that they will get justice one day,” the SP chief said.