Akhilesh Yadav hints at climb-down from SP's demand for 12 seats in Maha

Nashik/Dhule (Maharashtra) : Kicking off the campaign for the November 20 Maharashtra Assembly elections, Samajwadi Party President and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday indicated a softening of his party's tough stance on being allotted 12 seats or going solo.

Addressing a massive rally in Malegaon town of Nashik in pouring rains late on Friday, and another huge public meeting in Dhule in sunny weather on Saturday, he claimed that his party's demand for a dozen seats from the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)-INDIA bloc was justified.

Unilaterally announcing candidates for five seats, the SP chief, sporting a red cap like thousands of his supporters, said that they would be satisfied with "a few seats" from the MVA-INDIA bloc.

Akhilesh Yadav also slammed the MahaYuti government for the lack of proper infrastructure in Maharashtra compared with Uttar Pradesh and without taking names, took a jibe at Union Minister Nitin Gadkari for failing to provide sophisticated roads and highways.

Along with SP state President Abu Asim Azmi, he has already announced its nominees for five seats, including a woman candidate - Shaan-e-Hind from Malegaon Central (Nashik). The others are Azmi, the sitting MLA from Mumbai’s Shivajinagar-Mankhurd, sitting MLA Rais Sheikh from Bhiwandi East and Riyaz Azmi for Bhiwandi West (both in Thane district), and Irshad Jahagirdar for Dhule City seat.

Simultaneously, state SP Youth President Fahad Ahmad is likely to get a ticket from the prestigious Anushakti Nagar seat in north-eastern Mumbai, where he and his actress-wife Swara Bhasker have already launched their poll campaign.

A senior SP source told IANS that the party will not go below a minimum of six seats, though it may not insist on a dozen seats as demanded earlier by Azmi and others this week.

Akhilesh Yadav said that his party is only putting up contenders in those seats where it has a winnable presence coupled with formidable candidates to pre-empt any objections from the MVA. He cited the Bhiwandi East seat which the Congress has not won for the past 25 years, but claimed that only the SP can bag it this time, and warned the MVA of a "Haryana-like situation" developing later if this was not accepted.

Azmi contended that he has informally discussed the matter with MVA leaders who have reportedly assured him about these constituencies, though the MVA is still in a deadlock over nearly two dozen contentious seats of the total 288.