Hopeful that the newly formed BSP-SP alliance in UP will be able to garner about 49% vote share in the Lok Sabha elections, Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, grand nephew of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and MP from the family’s pocket borough Mainpuri , says that people are sick and tired of the Modi-led BJP government. Ruling out any possibilities of an alliance with the Congress, Yadav said the grand old party had lost its base in UP, barring some major cities, and has no chances of winning. Talking to TOI, he said people know that if they voted for the Congress or Shivpal Yadav’s party, it would mean a vote to the BJP. Excerpts...Of course, I will vacate the seat for Netaji, if he decides to contest from here. The seat-sharing formula with the BSP has not yet been finalized and SP gets it, I will certainly leave it for Netaji and contest from wherever the party decides to field me. I have recently started campaigning in the constituency and if Netaji contests from here, I’ll only be preparing a ground for him.I was wrongly quoted on this. All I had said was that if a leader or even a small worker forms a new party, some votes are certainly lost. The loss however depends on the stature of the leader. There are no doubts that Shivpal Ji had been a ground-level worker for the past 35 years, bvut things have changed now, as running a new party is not the same as being part of an established party with leaders like Netaji and Akhilesh at the helm. Another factor that goes against Shivpal ji is that the party cadre has accepted Akhilesh as the undisputed successor of Netaji. He has a complete hold over the party.BSP has a vote share of about 20% across the state. Our combined vote share will go up to 48-49% comfortably in the coming elections. This alliance will definitely work. You cannot write off a political party if it does badly in one poll. Both the parties have their own strength and we are natural allies. Unlike Congress, BSP and SP can transfer their votes to each other.Congress was in alliance with us in 2017 assembly elections. We never broke the alliance. It was they who ditched us during the by-elections to Phulpur and Gorakhpur constituencies. They announced their candidates without even consulting us. But, we have left two seats for Congress. After Sonia ji started contesting elections, we have never fielded any candidate from these two seats and the tradition continues.I don’t think so. Voters are fed up with the BJP. They know that if they vote for the Congress or Shivpal ji, it will be a vote to BJP. As far as Congress is concerned, it has no presence in the state, apart from a few big cities like Varanasi, Lucknow, Kanpur, Rae Bareli, Amethi and Bareilly . Even if they join hands with Shivpal ji, they will gain nothing.Out of the 78 that the alliance will contest, we will win between 65-70 seats. Barring a couple of seats in east UP, the alliance will sweep the polls here. Seats like Noida, Meerut , Kairana, Saharanpur are strongholds for BSP and if RLD comes into the alliance then we will take Muzzafarnagar and Baghpat too. BSP has very good presence in Western UP.The seats are with us. We can give them some more seats from our share. Talks are in progress.There is no feud. Shivpal ji has formed his own party and that’s the end of everything. Now there is no confusion. Everything is settled.Akhilesh ji is a role model for me. He is a very disciplined person. He has made a space for himself with his clean politics. He has a vision and people realize this. They have seen him doing wonders for the state. He wants to do new things both for the state and the party.I don’t want her to join politics. One is enough in the family. She also prefers to devote her time to our children.

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