SP to go solo in UP Assembly bypolls if BSP tie ends: Akhilesh

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said the party will fight bypolls alone on all 11 Uttar Pradesh Assembly seats if its alliance with the BSP ends, stressing that he would deliberate on the decision carefully.

After the BSP president Mayawati announcing her decision to go solo in the bypolls, the alliance with the SP appeared to be falling apart on Tuesday.

Yadav, who was in Ghazipur to visit the residence of SP worker Vijay Yadav to express his condolence after his murder, said, "If the gathbandhan (alliance) has disintegrated or whatever that is being said about the gathbandhan is true, then I will deliberate on it very carefully..."
The SP chief said, "At this point of time, the 'gathbandhan' is not important for us. What is more important is that the family of our slain party worker should get justice...I am more concerned over the killing of our workers."
Akhilesh Yadav, who was earlier in Azamgarh, the seat from where he won the Lok Sabha election, said, "In 2022, the SP will form a government in Uttar Pradesh and this is our strategy."