New Delhi: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday indicated that he would support his ally, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, if she threw her hat into the ring for the post of Prime Minister.
“Everyone knows where I stand. I want the Prime Minister to be from Uttar Pradesh. While it could be from any part of the country, still I would prefer UP. But the PM should not be from Varanasi, although the city also falls in UP. Narendra Modi has greatly harmed the country,” Yadav told media.
He said his ambitions as a politician did not clash with those of Mayawati.
“I am happy to do my best to see her as the Prime Minister and she is happy to do her best to see me as UP Chief Minister,” Yadav said.
He said the great Opposition alliance will give the country its next PM.
“I would be very happy if the PM comes from the other half of the population [women]. If that happens, the Samajwadi Party will give its full support,” he said.
On Tuesday, Mayawati said she “may have to” contest the general election from UP’s Ambedkar Nagar seat “if all went well”.
Yadav said it took him and Mayawati some time to become friends but now they trusted each other fully.
He called the SP-BSP alliance the “biggest thing to happen to UP.”
“Over 80-plus communities have decided to vote with a singular stance of not letting BJP form the government because of our alliance. The transfer of votes of BSP and SP has been smooth in the state. The cadre of the two parties is working closely,” Yadav said.
He claimed that Modi was trying to engineer differences between him and his once-sworn enemy Mayawati.
“There is still a lot of time to go for this election. I am worried about what game Bharatiya Janata Party would play. Modi recently said that Samajwadi Paty was in league with Congress to work against Mayawati. This is not true,” Yadav said.
Last week, Modi accused Yadav of being hand-in-glove with Congress and befooling Mayawati.
“The SP is going soft on the Congress, but its alliance partner BSP chief Mayawati is attacking the Congress. What kind of alliance is this?” Modi said at an election rally in Varanasi.
Out of the 80 Parliamentary seats in UP, SP will contest 37 and BSP 38, leaving three for Rashtriya Lok Dal and two for Congress in Rae Bareli and Amethi.
