New Delhi: Samajwadi Party has decided to go solo in upcoming Bihar elections and may contest all 243 seats on its own, Bihar state unit President Ramchandra Yadav said on Monday.
The party recently walked out of the grand alliance after it was given only five seats in the state. A party leader said that it felt ‘humiliated' on treatment meted to it by secular alliance parties RJD, Congress and JD(U).
Ramchandra Yadav, however, indicated that it may form an alliance with Sharad Pawar's NCP, separate from the grand alliance.
SP National General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav told reporters on Thursday in Lucknow, “In Bihar the party will contest separately. The bigger parties in the alliance did not consult us while declaring seats due to which the SP felt humiliated.”
The SP is a major constituent of a six-party combine which had met early this year in Delhi in which all the Janata Parivar groups decided to merge together to take on the BJP at the national level.
SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav was the spearhead of the campaign to bring Janata Party together and was elected as its head.
Congress, JD (U) and RJD formed an alliance later to stop the BJP's winning streak.
Congress will contest at 40 and JDU, RJD at 100 seats each in Bihar elections. The NCP was allotted three seats but rejected the offer. Later, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav offered five seats to SP, two from his own quota.
The three parties had reportedly not consulted SP before taking a decision.
Ram Gopal Yadav said it was the duty of the major constituents to consult the SP before deciding over seat sharing.
“We came to know about this through the media. This is not ‘gatbandhan dharma' and SP felt humiliated,” he said.
Yadav said the party was not happy with the paltry two or five seats offered out of the 243 in the state assembly.
“We will win much more seats by contesting on our own as compared to that being offered by the alliance. We will contest respectfully,” he said.
On the future of ‘Janata Parivar', Yadav said at that time itself he had said that he would not sign the “death warrant” of the party.
“Respecting the sentiments of the party workers, SP has decided to go all alone in Bihar Assembly elections,” he said.
