SP eyes the pie,may fight 80 seats in Assembly polls

He said he had finalised the names of candidates.

“I am going to submit the list to Mulayam Singhji next week to get his clearance,” said Yadav.

Asked if SP might backtrack in favour of the Congress at the last moment because of its equations with the party,Yadav said there was no question of withdrawing from the fray.

He claimed his party had held programmes in Patan,Mehsana,Junagadh,Rajkot,Jetpur and other places and even locals were joining them.

However,he said SP’s main support base continued to be North Indians,mostly settled in industrial areas of Surat,Vapi,Valsad,Bharuch,Ankleshwar as well as Ahmedabad and Vadodara,apart from the local Muslims.

During the past four months,the party’s state leadership has held meetings across the state.

SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav was expected to address state-level workers in Ahmedabad on June 7 this year but he could not turn up owing to the bypoll for Kannauj Lok Sabha seat in UP from where Dimple Yadav,his daughter-in-law and wife of UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav,was contesting.

However,he and other national leaders,according to state unit,will come to campaign for the party candidates during the Assembly elections in the state.