Will give full respect to allies, says Akhilesh Yadav
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Saturday that the party will maintain «utmost respect» towards allies while contesting the BJP in the 2024 general elections.
«Samajwadi party's aim right from the beginning has been to challenge the BJP.
And whenever we have allied with a party, we have done so maintaining utmost respect (for the ally) and in the future too the SP will respect allies to contest the BJP,» he said.
The SP chief was speaking at a press meet held in Lucknow to honour the team of 14 'rat-hole' miners who helped rescue 40 labourers who were trapped inside the under-construction Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand. Yadav gave them a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh each.
Yadav's statement, directed towards the Congress as well as the Rashtriya Lok Dal came in the wake of Congress' defeats in assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and SP's own dismal performance in MP where the party failed to win a single seat.
Last month, an SP leader had said the party was willing to leave 15 out of 80 seats in UP for allies. Yadav later clarified that this was just one «suggestion» which had come up during a party meeting.
