On same side in Centre,SP-Cong stand divided in state

“Finding a foothold in the power structure of Delhi would have been good for us. It will be difficult for us to sustain when out of power both in UP and Delhi. We have to fight for survival in UP,” said a SP leader.

Brij Bhushan Tewari,Rajya Sabha MP of the Samajwadi Party,said anti-Congressism of Ram Manohar Lohia may have collapsed,“but there is no future in our relations with the Congress”.

“Though I am not in a position to decide the relations of my party with other political parties,SP should have offered issue-based support to the ruling alliance,” said Tewari.

He added that the SP has to fight the Congress for its own survival in the state.

Mohan Singh,a former Samajwadi MP who lost the recent Lok Sabha election from Deoria,said the SP had given support to the UPA not the Congress. “In the by-polls,our fight will be with the BSP — the Congress will be nowhere in the electoral battle,” he said.

All India Congress Committee member and former chief minister Ram Naresh Yadav said the era of Congress playing footsie with regional forces like the SP and the BSP is over.

“The unconditional support extended by SP and BSP should not be construed that we will enter into some kind of electoral understanding with either of them. We have no option but to fight them for the revival and rejuvenation of the Congress in UP,” said Yadav. If it hurts the SP and BSP,so be it,he added.

Yadav said a meeting of the coordination committee of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee will be held in June to draw a blueprint of a future programme,including the by-elections to 11 Assembly and one Lok Sabha seats.