After Mayawati's snub, Akhilesh Yadav says SP will fight bypolls on all 11 seats alone

Mayawati had earlier advised Akhilesh to put his party back in order while adding that the break up between the two parties is not permanent.

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said the Samajwadi Party will contest bypolls alone on all 11 Uttar Pradesh Assembly seats. "If the alliance ends, we will field SP candidates on all 11 seats up for bypolls after consulting party leaders soon. Even if our paths are different, we welcome it," Yadav said.

Replying to the question on whether he expected that Mayawati would decide to go solo, he said: "It is difficult to say. The decision to part ways is also welcome and best wishes to the party workers."

His statement comes soon after Bahujan Samajwadi Party chief Mayawati said that her party will contest the bypolls separately. She advised Akhilesh to put his party back in order while adding that the break up between the two parties is not permanent. She said that BSP can work with the SP in future if Akhilesh is able to "fulfil his duties".

She said that the SP chief needs to set his party in order and weed out those who responsible for failing to get their supporters' vote en bloc during the Lok Sabha election. "It's not a permanent break up. If we feel in future that SP Chief succeeds in his political work, we'll again work together. But if he doesn't succeed, it'll be good for us to work separately. So we've decided to fight the by-election alone," she said.

Claiming that the BSP had not benefited from the alliance with the SP in the recently concluded election, she said that the transfer of votes between the two parties did not take place. She even claimed that the SP could not even manage to maintain its hold on Yadav seats as well as the constituencies on which his family members were contesting. 

"We can't ignore political compulsions. In the results of Lok Sabha elections in UP, base vote of Samajwadi Party, the 'Yadav' community, didn't support the party. Even strong contenders of SP were defeated," she said.