Congress will not ally with any party in Uttar Pradesh: Surjewala

The Congress on Monday said that it will not forge an alliance with any political party for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election.

"Rahul Gandhi has made it clear that the Congress will not forge alliance with any of the political parties for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and it will fight on its own," Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters.

"The Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Bharatiya Janata party have formed their governments in the state for over 27 years, and they are responsible for the present condition of the state," he alleged.

Surjewala's remarks came when he was asked if the Congress will forge an alliance with the Samajwadi Party after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav supported the Congress Vice-President's remarks accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of doing "dalali" over the blood shed by Indian soldiers.

"If he (Gandhi) has said that, he must have said it after due thinking... he must have his reasons," Akhilesh Yadav said in a reply to media queries on Gandhi's remark.

"I visited some of the martyrs' houses... it is the poor who are dying. What do they know about surgical strikes," he said, adding that he shares cordial relations with Gandhi.

The Congress had won 28 seats in the 2012 assembly election and it was the runner-up in 32 assembly seats.

The grand old party has been out of power in the state since 1989. It won 94 seats in 1989, when it lost power. Since then, the seat graph has gone down: It won 46 seats in 1991, 28 seats in 1993, 33 seats in 1996, 25 seats in 2002 and 22 seats in 2007.

--IANS

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