Samajwadi Party on Tuesday said it will also go it alone in the 11 Assembly bye-elections after BSP supremo Mayawati announced that her party would contest these elections on its own following the poor performance of the SP-BSP alliance in the Lok Sabha elections.
"I will think about what is being said about the alliance and if it has broken, the SP will also go it alone in the by polls after consultation amongst the party members." SP chief Akhilesh Yadav told reporters shortly after Mayawati made clear her intentions of fighting the bye-elections on her own.
Replying to the question on whether he expected such a decision by the BSP, he said, "It is difficult to say. The decision to part ways is also welcome and best wishes to the party workers."
Earlier in Lucknow, Mayawati announced that she will fight the by-polls to 11 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh alone saying the reason for the alliance's debacle in the Lok Sabha was because the main vote base of the SP, the Yadav community, did not support the alliance candidates.
"It's not a permanent break. 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-elections alone," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister told ANI.
"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 asserted.
The statement from the BSP supremo came after reports surfaced that she had asked her party cadre to get ready to contest the upcoming assembly by-polls on their own after her party fared poorly in Lok Sabha polls, despite being in alliance with Samajwadi Party and RLD.
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Mayawati, however, also praised Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and said that their relation will continue in the future.
"Ever since the SP-BSP coalition took place, SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav have given me a lot of respect. I also forgot all our differences in the interest of the nation and gave them respect. Our relation is not only for politics, it will continue forever," she added.