Bhim Army President Chandrashekhar Azad on Saturday said that his Azad Samaj Party is not in alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections beginning next month. Still working. Chandrashekhar Azad said, “Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav does not want the support of Dalits.”
A day after meeting the Samajwadi Party chief to discuss seat-sharing, Chandrashekhar Azad told the media, “Yesterday Akhilesh ji humiliated us… Yesterday Akhilesh ji humiliated the Bahujan Samaj.”
Azad continued, “Finally, I felt that Akhilesh ji did not want Dalit leaders in this alliance… he only wanted Dalit votes. My fear was that if Dalits vote for him and he forms the government, we will Wouldn’t be able to talk to them about our problems…if we are beaten up, if our land is occupied and our women are raped, like in Hathras.”
According to a report in NDTV, Akhilesh Yadav offered three seats to the Azad Samaj Party, but Chandrashekhar Azad was demanding 10 seats and a middle ground could not be made.
Azad and Akhilesh are understood to have a broad pact to fight these elections together, with the Bhim Army chief likely to stand from his stronghold in Saharanpur.
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Azad said, “Akhilesh ji told us a month ago that we will fight elections together. I came here for two days to discuss our joint fight. I want to join with Akhilesh ji to stop the BJP. But he does not want to give representation to Dalits.”
“I will decide on my next course of action in two days… Soon a third front may be ready,” he said.
In November, Azad told that he had decided to contest the UP elections against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. He said, “I will not let Yogi win, no matter what happens.”
Chandrashekhar Azad said, “I will appeal to other opposition parties also to support me against Yogi… He has harassed the public for four and a half years.”
He also said then that he wanted an alliance with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party, as “we don’t want Bahujan votes to be divided.”
Before the UP elections, Akhilesh Yadav has emerged as the biggest challenger to the ruling BJP.
Yadav has turned down help from large parties such as the Congress and formed a “rainbow” alliance with regional organizations such as Omprakash Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (which had tied up with the Samajwadi Party last year) and Jayant Choudhary’s Rashtriya Lok Dal. has done.
He has also roped in BJP leaders with considerable influence on the OBC vote base, including (so far) Swami Prasad Maurya and Dharam Singh Saini, who joined his party only yesterday. Both these leaders were ministers in the Yogi cabinet.
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