Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Aazad has abruptly ruled out any possibility of a coalition between his party and the Samajwadi Party. Aazad said at a media briefing that he unified the ‘Bahujan Samaj’ and met with Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav for six months but to avail with no agreed outcome.
Chandrashekhar Aazad stated that he was in Lucknow for two days to meet SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, but the SP chief insulted him by not calling him. “I’d delegated responsibilities to him [Akhilesh Yadav]. By not calling me, he insulted me” Aazad added.
Azad claimed on Saturday that an alliance with Samajwadi Party would be impossible since Akhilesh Yadav just wanted a Dalit vote bank, not a Dalit leader. “My people feared that our leader would also join the Samajwadi Party. Akhilesh Ji does not need Dalits,” Aazad said.
“After all the discussions, in the end, I felt that Akhilesh Yadav does not want Dalits in this alliance, he just wants Dalit vote bank. He humiliated the people of Bahujan Samaj, I tried for 1 month 3 days but the alliance could not happen,” ANI quoted Aazad as saying.
Aazad wrote on Twitter on Saturday that defeat of BJP is not possible without alliance. “There is great power in unity. It is not easy to defeat an elusive party like BJP without strength and unity. It is the responsibility of the leader of the coalition to take care of the representation and respect of the people of all the society. The Dalit class in UP deems Akhilesh Yadav fit for this responsibility.” (Translated) Aazad Tweeted.
This development comes after there were media reports claiming the alliance to happen between the two parties. Chandra Shekhar Aazad previously told India Today about the collaboration with the Samajwadi Party “The alliance has been confirmed. That’s why I’m going [to the press conference]. At 10 a.m., I will inform the press on what terms everything has been decided.”
Recently, several BJP MLAs and leaders joined SP ahead of the elections. Shifting is also taking place from SP. It would be interesting to watch how such tendencies affect the upcoming UP state assembly elections, which are slated to take place in seven phases beginning February 7, with the counting on March 10.