Uttar Pradesh Elections 2022: Akhilesh Yadav Snubs Shivpal, Rules Out Alliance

Akhilesh Yadav has virtually ruled out any alliance with his estranged uncle Shivpal Yadav's Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022.

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav has announced that his party will contest the 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls alone. Akhilesh Yadav has virtually ruled out any alliance with his estranged uncle Shivpal Yadav's Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia (PSPL). The SP president, according to an official statement issued late on Wednesday said that his party will form the next government in Uttar Pradesh. "People have seen through the BJP game plan and will no longer be fooled by their false promises. They are now talking about our regime and comparing it with BJP. We do not need alliances and will contest the 2022 polls on our own strength," he said. The Samajwadi Party has faced bitter failure with alliance. The party allied with the Congress in the 2017 Assembly elections and was not only voted out of power but left with 47 seats in the state assembly that has 403 members. In 2019, the SP allied with the Bahujan Samaj Party and the alliance was touted as a game changer. However, the Samajwadi Party was left with five seats and the BSP snapped the alliance, accusing SP cadres of not supporting BSP candidates. With both the experiments proving to be disasters, the SP now shares no relationship with other opposition parties. Talks with the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) for an alliance in the Assembly bye-elections also failed to succeed. Shivpal Yadav, however, had recently stated that though he would not merge his party into the SP, he was prepared for an alliance with SP in the Assembly elections. Akhilesh Yadav has now put the seal of disapproval on such a possibility by saying that he will go it alone in the next elections. SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary has said: "The announcement was necessary to inform the rank and file that the party will not rely on anyone." .