SP-Congress alliance may continue in 2019 polls, says senior party leader Naresh Agrawal

New Delhi: Despite facing a drubbing in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, the Samajwadi Party (SP) may continue its alliance with the Congress in the 2019 general elections, a senior party leader hinted on Thursday. SP has called its national convention on 25 March to discuss and analyse the reasons for its defeat in recently held state Assembly polls, senior party leader Naresh Agrawal said.

“In the meeting, there will be discussions and we will analyse the reasons for defeat in the recently concluded Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh. There will also be discussions on preparation for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls,” Agrawal said.

Replying to questions on alliance with Congress, the SP leader said there will be discussions on this issue. “We need to look it (alliance) from long-term perspective. And defeats are part of democratic system, in past also we had seen waves of various political parties and leaders but we overcame that also. So this is nothing new,” he said. The SP and Congress have contested Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls together in which both parties managed to get only 54 seats out of 403 Assembly seats.

As per the agreement, the SP contested on 298 seats and Congress on 105 seats, out of which it managed to win only seven seats. Meanwhile, when asked about division in the party and if Shivpal Yadav will also attend the meeting of national executive, Agrawal said, “I don’t think he is a member of the national executive anymore so no invitation will be extended to him”. While speaking on Mulayam, Agrawal said he is convener of the party and an invitation will be extended by party president Akhilesh Yadav to him.