New Delhi, Mar 22: Declaring that the possibilities of an alliance between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress had died down,
the SP General Secretary Amar Singh ruled out withdrawal of his party candidate from Rae Bareli from where Congress president Sonia Gandhi would be contesting.
“SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav has declared Ashok Singh as the SP candidate from there and has already started preparations,'' Amar Singh said while releasing the list of 59 lok sabha candidates from Uttar Pradesh.
Coming down heavily on the Congress, Singh said its attitude
was a big jolt to the secular polity in the country. ''If secular
polity in the country suffers a setback, it would be only because of the congress, which never reciprocated SP's efforts to unite the secular forces,'' he said.
Singh said while SP was always after the Congress but it followed the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) which is the other form of Bharatiya Janata Party. ''The statement of senior Congress leader Arjun Singh in Lucknow against SP was in bad taste and was made only to please Mayawati, who despite this ditched the Congress,'' he said.
In reply to a question, Singh said there was no question of
withdrawing its candidate from Rae Bareli and it would announce its candidate from Amethi as well.
Bureau Report
