Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) president Shivpal Yadav on Tuesday expressed his desire to be part of the grand alliance in the state, provided his newly-formed outfit gets 50 per cent seats to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Speaking at a joint press conference with Bahujan Mukti Party (BMP) president V L Matang in Lucknow, the estranged SP leader said, “We are not the B-party of BJP. Why are they (opposition parties) delaying the formation of a grand alliance? What fear do they have? Are they afraid of the CBI? I even told them before that they should talk to me. We want 50 per cent of seats to fight. We are with them when it comes to removing BJP from power, but we need 50 per cent seats.” Shivpal announced a “grand” political rally to be held at Rama Bai Ambedkar ground in Lucknow on December 9. The rally, to be organised by his outfit and the BMP, also has the support of the Bahujan Kranti Morcha (BKM). “We do not have any mutual understanding with BJP. We are not in alliance with BJP, neither in Lok Sabha nor Vidhan Sabha…To defeat BJP…we are enough,” he said, adding that having been with netaji (SP founder and his brother Mulayam Singh Yadav) since childhood, he knows him better than others, and has his blessing. Shivpal also attacked BJP, claiming that the state of farmers was bad, women are unsafe and the youth of minority communities are being harassed in “fake police cases”.

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