Release of SP candidate list no setback: UP Congress leader

New Delhi: With Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav ruling out any alliance and releasing a list of 325 candidates for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, a state Congress leader said on Wednesday that the development was not a setback for the party.

The UP Congress leader, who did not want to be named, said: "They (SP) have released their list. It is their internal matter; the Congress has nothing to say. 

"When nothing was going to happen and the Congress had not started talks seriously, how can it be a setback? Only when you expect something that there could be a possibility of a setback. There was no expectation at all," he said. 

There were reports about parleys between the two parties to forge an alliance in the politically significant state.

The Samajwadi Party said the remaining 78 candidates will be announced later.

"I have already said that there will be no alliance with anyone," Mulayam Singh told the media in state capital Lucknow.