Upset with BJP and Congress, Akhilesh Yadav gears up to hold talks with KCR

In what seems like a salvo to the Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on December 27 expressed his unhappiness with the party for not inducting its sole MLA in Madhya Pradesh into the state cabinet, The Indian Express has reported.

Yadav further stated that this has cleared the way for SP to chose its line, and announced his decision to travel to Hyderabad to meet Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, or KCR as he is popularly known.

Rao is trying to forge a non-BJP, non-Congress "federal front" for the upcoming general elections while Congress is hoping to seal an alliance with the SP and Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh for the polls.

According to the report, top leaders in the Congress have not reacted to the statement yet, preferring to wait and watch as the situation unfolds.

Both the SP and the BSP had charted a different course in the three Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh, which went to polls recently.

"As far as an alliance is concerned, different leaders from different parties are making attempts. I am hopeful that some or the other alliance would take place," Yadav said while speaking at the SP headquarters in Lucknow.

Yadav also said that both the BJP and the Congress had made his way clear by their respective actions. "A couple of days ago, I thanked the BJP because they made us backward... that cleared our line and our way," Yadav said. "Now I thank the Congress that it did not make our lone MLA in Madhya Pradesh a minister. They also cleared the way. We thank both the parties because they have cleared the way of Samajwadi people," Yadav was quoted as saying.

"The Congress had promised to induct the SP MLA as a minister. Congress was not in majority there. After that, such behavior is not appropriate," SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhry told the newspaper.

Both the SP and the BSP had offered to support the Congress in Madhya Pradesh after the battle between the saffron party and the Grand Old Party went down to the string.