Quami Ekta Dal merges with Samajwadi Party in UP

Lucknow: Quami Ekta Dal (QED), having two MLAs, today merged with ruling Samajwadi Party ahead of Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh due next year.   "QED has merged with SP which would strengthen the party," SP spokesman and senior Cabinet Minister Shivpal Yadav said after a press conference here.   QED President Afzal Ansari accused the Narendra Modi government of not fulfilling the promises made during the Lok Sabha polls.   "Two years of the Modi government is a failure and the issues raised by BJP during the polls were not taken care of after the formation of the government. There is an attempt to vitiate the atmosphere and brotherhood in the society and malign the image of the UP government," he said.   "We have merged as we did not want to act like vote cutters in the Assembly polls," he said.   In a meeting held in Ghazipur on Saturday, QED said that like-minded parties should come on a common platform to deal with communal forces.   All the party office-bearers had authorised Ansari to decide on the issue of merger with SP for the Assembly polls.   Asked about non-inclusion of controversial West UP leader DP Yadav in SP in 2012, Yadav said the party did not even want to hear names of those involved in criminal activities.   The SP leader said that there had been no discussion with QED MLA Mukhtar Ansari, who is at present lodged in jail.   "At present only those here are joining SP. We did not have any discussion with Mukthar," he said.   QED has two MLAs--Mukhtar Ansari from Mau Sadar and Sigbatullaha Ansari from Mohammadabad Yusufpur seat. Afzal, Mukthar and Sigbatullaha are brothers.   QED also claimed that it has hold over Muslim vote bank in the state.