BHOPAL: Samajwadi Party ( SP ) will contest the upcoming November assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh with or without a coalition understanding with the Congress, party’s national president and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said here on Thursday. Four months before the assembly elections in the state, Akhilesh Yadav is on a two-day visit to meet party workers and leaders here to plan electoral options.

“The SP will contest elections here in the coming times,” Akhilesh Yadav said speaking to reporters on Thursday afternoon. “We sent 51 party observers through the 230 assembly seats. They were here for a week and we know where our organisation is strong. Wherever we have strong organisational base and good candidates, the party will contest.” In the present state assembly, the SP has no seats while BSP has four. In 2008 assembly elections, the party had won one seat.

But the former UP CM insisted, “We have a roadmap and strategy, issues to raise and our work done in UP as example of what SP can deliver.”

Asked if he is scheduled to meet state Congress president Kamal Nath during his visit, Akhilesh Yadav said, “We have very good relations with PCC chief Kamal Nath but I have not come to Bhopal with a programme for such a meeting. My coming to Bhopal was decided long before and there is no such meeting scheduled.”

However, he also specified, “During Chitrakoot bypolls, the Congress wanted our cooperation and we decided not to contest. We are in favour of an alliance and want that the country’s fight should not be weakened. The nation and this state want a change, people are angry with the government and are not satisfied with their work.” He claimed the nation wants a new Prime Minister. Asked if he will support BSP chief Mayawati for the post or AICC president Rahul Gandhi, Yadav said, “See the good fortune of UP. Anyone who becomes Prime Minister comes to UP.”

Yadav said that his party is “in dialogue with many” over an alliance but refused to divulge the details. Reacting to chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s allegation that any party who formed coalition with Congress faced destruction and Prime Ministers like Choudhary Charan Singh, IK Gujral and HD Deve Gowda were humiliated, their governments pulled down – Aklhilesh Yadav said, “To run a coalition government and to keep an alliance together needs courage. That is why I appreciate Kumaraswamy. He has shown that courage.”

Speaking about SP electoral designs in the state, Akhilesh Yadav said, “SP has always tried to find its place in Madhya Pradesh. We want to reach out and work for the upliftment of the deprived, weak, poor, women, youth and be their voice. Farmers were promised dreams of profits and huge returns. They stand betrayed and the unemployed youth has no jobs. I am troubled to think there will be one generation that will go without jobs.”

He claimed that BJP government in UP promised waiver of farm loans but that has miserably failed. “Our farmers have got 25 paisa waiver on farm loans. Here in Madhya Pradesh, women are peeved with the state taking top rank in offenses against women. Thousands of farmers have committed suicide and the string of Vyapam corruption stretched from here to UP,” he said.

