New Delhi: In an unexpected move, Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav revealed that he will not be contesting the upcoming UP Elecions 2022.
He also said that an alliance between his party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) for the polls has been finalised.
"Our alliance with RLD is final. Seat sharing is to be finalised," he told PTI in an interview.
Yadav, who is also SP MP from Azamgarh and the chief minister face of his party, said he will "not be contesting the assembly polls".
On chances of taking uncle Shivpal Yadav's Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia (PSPL) along in the polls, he said, "I don't have any problem in this. He and his men will be given due honour".
Earlier on Sunday, Shivpal Singh Yadav Sunday urged all political parties that share the same ideology to join hands for the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
He said that forming an alliance with the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party would be his priority.
A day ago, Akhilesh Yadav's statement praising Muhammad Ali Jinnah stirred a major political controversy.
"Sardar Patel, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Jinnah, they all came out of the same institution. They all studied at the same institute, they became barristers and gave freedom," the SP leader had said at the rally on Sunday.
The BJP, however, has slammed the SP President for saying that Jinnah was a ''hero of India`s freedom movement.'' BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said, "Mulayam Singh will also hold his head high after hearing this from Akhilesh Yadav, who has studied in Australia. The country considers Muhammad Ali Jinnah as the villain of the partition. Calling Jinnah the hero of freedom is the politics of Muslim appeasement."