Shivpal Yadav's party may form alliance with Congress, announcement likely today

In a major development ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Shivpal Yadav's Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSP-L) has reportedly formed a pre-poll alliance with the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh. According to reports, an announcement in this regard is likely to be made on Thursday after a proposed meeting with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Congress general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh east, at party’s office in the state capital. The announcement is likely to take place during Priyanka's press conference today. 

Shivpal, who has been criticising the SP-BSP pre-poll alliance in the state, has time and again stated that his part is ready to join hands with the Congress in Uttar Pradesh for 2019 Lok Sabha Elections.

“There have been no talks with the Congress about the alliance yet. Congress is also a secular party and if it approaches us to defeat the BJP, we will lend our support,” Shivpal Yadav had said earlier.

Yadav has also showed interest in forming an alliance with any secular party including the Congress to oust the BJP out of power in 2019 polls. "No alliance can defeat the BJP without the support of the PSPL, Bahujan Mukti Party and our other alliances. We are ready to form an alliance with other secular parties to keep the BJP out of power," he said.

PSP-L chief Shivpal Yadav had earlier announced that he will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Firozabad constituency. "The people of Firozabad want me to contest the Lok Sabha elections from there and so I will contest from Firozabad," Yadav said and asserted that the government at the Centre could only be formed with support from PSP-L.

On SP-BSP alliance, Yadav recalled how the BSP had given "shocks to the SP" and formed government with the BJP on three occasions. "A party which called Mulayam Singh Yadav a 'goonda' and me 'durachari', forging an alliance with such a party is an insult to both father and uncle," Shivpal said. 

"This alliance is a thugbandhan and is for money. It is possible that money have been taken before forging this alliance," he added.

Yadav had said that he did not want any high-ranking designation in the Samajwadi Party, nor a minister's post. "I only wanted respect, but I was separated (from the party) as part of a conspiracy. How can we trust a person (Akhilesh Yadav) who has deceived his father and uncle? I had to form the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia out of compulsion."