UP Alliance Hype: Strategist Prashant Kishor Meets Akhilesh Yadav; Congress And SP May Team Up

Congress poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who has been hired by the party for its Uttar Pradesh assembly campaign, met with state Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday amid growing speculation that Congress and the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) would be part of a grand alliance ahead of the early 2017 polls. While both sides refused to be drawn into the alliance speculation, the development is being seen as a change of stance by Akhilesh Yadav, who so far has been bitterly opposed to any such alliance.

Kishor had last week met Akhilesh Yadav's father and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav at his New Delhi residence. The meeting, which went on for more than four hours was also attended by party's national general secretary Amar Singh.

Sources said Kishor had sought an audience with the 43-year-old chief minister last week but it was not granted. Things only changed on Monday after Mulayam Singh Yadav called up his son and asked him "not to be rigid about meeting Kishor". The meeting is important as Akhilesh Yadav is said to have a major say in ticket distribution and choice of seats to be contested by his party in case an alliance.

After the meeting, Akhilesh said he would speak his mind on any alliance at the party forum and that he left the matter to his father. He also said that if SP and Congress are ready for an alliance, how can someone stop it. The state unit of the Congress too appears uncomfortable with the idea of joining hands with the SP but are toeing the line as they to do not want the minority vote to be fragmented.

Kishor's back-to-back talks with SP leaders, including Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav, come at a time when the leaders of various regional parties attended SP’s silver jubilee meet — a move that has been seen as Mulayam Singh Yadav's attempt to forge an alliance for the crucial polls, hardly a few months away.

With inputs from IANS.