Akhilesh Yadav's party's MLA was not included in the Madhya Pradesh cabinet.
After Akhilesh Yadav's not-very-subtle hint about repercussions on Uttar Pradesh of his Samajwadi Party's lone lawmaker being left out of the Madhya Pradesh cabinet, the Congress today said it would try and sort out differences between the two parties. The people want both parties to fight the 2019 elections together, said Congress leader Raj Babbar. Akhilesh Yadav had taken aim at the Congress in Delhi on Wednesday.
Here are the ten points on Akhilesh Yadav's comment on alliance:
"We thank the Congress party for not making our Vidhayak (legislator) a minister in Madhya Pradesh," Akhilesh Yadav told reporters. By doing so, said the former UP chief minister, the Congress had "cleared the path for Uttar Pradesh".
UP Congress leader Raj Babbar said today that "resentment is showing" in the Samajwadi Party chief's statement.
"One never gets upset with someone who is estranged. The Congress and Samajwadi leadership will talk and sort these issues. People want us to fight elections together," Raj Babbar told news agency ANI.
There has been speculation that the Samajwadi Party and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are planning to keep the Congress out of a possible coalition in Uttar Pradesh to take on the BJP in the 2019 national election, due by May.
The Congress, with 114 seats in the Madhya Pradesh election, emerged as the single largest party in the 230-member assembly, but managed to touch majority only with support from the BSP and the Samajwadi, which have won two seats and one. But no lawmaker from the BSP or Samajwadi Party has been included in the Congress cabinet of Kamal Nath.
"In the days to come, who all will join hands with the SP, who all want to come, all options are open," Akhilesh Yadav said. The 45-year-old also welcomed Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's effort to establish a front of non-Congress, non-BJP parties.
Akhilesh Yadav said he would not be able to meet Mr Rao, or KCR, in Delhi this time. He said he would travel to Telangana and meet KCR soon, and discuss the political scenario.
Akhilesh Yadav's statements have reinforced speculation that the Congress may be on its way to being elbowed out of the proposed "grand alliance" in Uttar Pradesh.
The Samajwadi chief has officially denied any strain with Rahul Gandhi after their failed alliance for last year's Uttar Pradesh election, in which they had been projected as "UP ke Ladke (UP's boys)".
Mayawati, who snubbed Congress before the recent state polls over a seat-sharing dispute, has already showed signs of discord. While extending support to the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, she had shown reluctance, saying people had voted for the Congress with a "heavy heart" and that she was extending support only to keep the BJP out.
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