Samajwadi Party to go alone in Uttar Pradesh polls, Mulayam declares 325 candidates

Lucknow: Ending speculations about a possible 'Mahagathbandhan', the Samajwadi Party on Wednesday announced that it will not form any pre-poll alliance for the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Addressing a press conference, party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav said, “Samajwadi Party is not forming alliance with any party.”

Mulayam also declared party candidates for 325 constituencies, out of which 175 seats are of sitting MLAs.

The SP chief said that candidates for the remaining 78 seats will be announced at a later date.

Interestingly, Mulayam was accompanied by his brother Shivpal Yadav while his son and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was absent.

Shivpal and Akhilesh had been at loggerheads for a while now despite the party patriarchs' efforts to end the tussle.

A few days back, Akhilesh had submitted a list of 403 candidates to Mulayam. Shivpal had responded by saying that the names of 175 candidates have already been finalised and “no one” should break party discipline.

Also, today's announcement means that Congress' attempts to stitch together an alliance with SP have not yielded any results and the grand old party will have to go to polls on its own strength.