Samajwadi Party upset with MVA, may move out

MUMBAI: The Samajwadi Party (SP) is upset with the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition and is planning to snap ties with it if its demands are not met. The party was given two seats as an MVA partner, and SP insiders said that they would stay in the alliance only if they got a minimum of four.

The SP had won two seats—Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar and Bhiwandi East—of the seven it contested in the last assembly elections, and had demanded five seats for the polls scheduled on November 20. However the MVA gave it only two seats, that too only those won by the party in 2019, which led to a conflict within the coalition.

“We wanted five seats and would have reduced one more seat in the larger interest of opposition unity but the Congress and its allies are taking us granted, which is unacceptable,” said an SP insider.

State SP president and MLA Abu Asim Azmi said he would wait till November 4, the last day for withdrawing nomination papers. “I am not in a position to say much about the alliance. We will wait till Monday, and if nothing happens, we will take a call,” he told Hindustan Times.

When questioned, Maharashtra Congress in-charge Ramesh Chennithala said that they were in talks with the SP leadership. “Our talks are still on and we are trying to convince them,” he said. The Congress has also appointed senior leader Arif Naseem Khan to hold negotiations with the SP.

The friction with the Samajwadi Party began after its national president Akhilesh Yadav announced candidates for five seats—Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar, Bhiwandi East, Bhiwandi West, Malegaon Central and Dhule City. This did not go down well with the MVA. “The SP did not give a single seat to the Congress for the bypolls in Uttar Pradesh,” said a Congress leader. “Moreover, it also declared candidates for five seats. No party has done something like this.”