Ready to go solo, says Congress amid reports of SP-BSP alliance for 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh

A day after reports emerged that the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party have finalised a blueprint for grand alliance sans Congress, a senior leader of the grand old party said the coalition is not important for them as party workers are ready to go alone. "A coalition is not important... Our workers are ready... We have not spoken to anyone about an alliance," senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member PL Punia said. 

His remarks came after a senior Samajwadi Party leader said that he was not aware of any talks between Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati regarding the alliance. "I don’t know if talks have taken place, if there is an announcement it will be made by behen Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav," Ram Gopal Yadav had said.

Earlier, there were reports that the Samajwadi Party president met BSP chief at her resident in the national capital and seat-sharing pact for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections was finalised. As per the seat-sharing pact reached, both the Samajwadi Party and the BSP will fight on 37 seats each and the six remaining seats will be given to smaller alliance partners like Chaudhary Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Om Prakash Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP).

SP chief had last week openly expressed his unhappiness over his party's lone MLA in Madhya Pradesh not given a ministerial birth. "Congress cleared the path for Uttar Pradesh," Akhilesh had said. The party, along with the BSP, is also maintaining a distance from Opposition meeting of late.