After Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar announced their alliance with Samajwadi Party in the upcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Nawab Malik on Thursday said that their role is to support the party capable of defeating or giving a fight to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Pawar on Tuesday had announced that the NCP will contest the forthcoming assembly elections in Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur. He said that his party will form an alliance with the Samajwadi Party in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections.
Addressing a press conference here, Malik said, "Our party supremo Sharad Pawar has made it clear that in order to defeat the BJP, we will strengthen the party which is in a strong position anywhere. We are with the Left in Kerala, with Shiv Sena and Congress in Maharashtra. Our alliance with Congress in Manipur is almost final. Talks are underway in Goa as well."
"So we are going with Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh. Our role is clear, that the party that is capable of defeating the BJP or is giving a fight to them, we will support that party," he added.
The Minister further said that it is not important how many seats they contest, what is important is how parties with the same thoughts can come together to defeat the BJP.
"In Uttar Pradesh, we have decided to contest elections in alliance with the Samajwadi Party. Yesterday, the Samajwadi Party has also officially announced to give us one seat of Bulandshahr assembly seat number 67, Anupshahar. Talks for the rest of the seats are on between Prafulla Bhai Patel and Akhilesh Yadav. It is not the question that how many seats would we contest on, the matter is how can the parties with the same thoughts come together to defeat the BJP," he said.
Talking about the decision of the Congress party to fight the UP polls without joining the NCP-SP alliance, Malik said that Congress has gradually become weak in the state after 1990 and its contesting alone could lead to the division of votes benefiting the BJP.
"Congress is weak now. We have seen that after 1990, Congress has gradually become weak in Uttar Pradesh. If Congress fights alone, then we have often seen that it leads to the division of votes leading to benefitting the BJP. So Sharad Pawar is clear that the party which is fighting against the BJP, all of them should come together," Malik said.
Uttar Pradesh assembly elections will be held in seven phases. The polling will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, and March 3 and 7 in seven phases. The counting will take place on March 10.
( With inputs from ANI )
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