SP leader warns against alliance with Congress

Senior Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi has said he will put up his own candidates in the next Lok Sabha elections if his party allies with the Congress, which he accused of practising soft Hindutva.

The leader issued the veiled threat in a letter addressed to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, calling the Congress opportunistic, "dhokhebaaz" (dishonest) and "andar se naram Hindutvawadi party," or a party which had a soft corner for Hindutva.

"The responsibility of safeguarding secularism is not just ours," Azmi, who heads the party in Maharashtra, said in the April 25 letter.

He complained that the Congress had backed the Shiv Sena rather than the SP for a place on the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

"On April 19, during an election to a section of the BMC, the SP needed only one vote of the Congress. But their sole nagarsevak Vithal Lokare voted for the Shiv Sena, allegedly at the behest of Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam," he told PTI.

The letter said if the SP allies with the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections, he he will field his own candidates.

But when questioned by PTI, Azmi refused to call this a "revolt", saying he will never resort to that.

SP general secretary Rajendra Chaudhary said he has no information about any letter sent by Azmi to Akhilesh Yadav.

Chaudhary also said that Yadav has no plans so far for campaigning in poll-bound Karnataka, though the party will field candidates on some assembly seats.