Thaindian News

Mumbai, March 6 (IANS) The Samajwadi Party is hopeful of working out an alliance with the Congress in Maharashtra ahead of the Lok Sabha polls though they face problems in seat-sharing in Uttar Pradesh, a top Samajwadi Party leader said here Friday.
Samajwadi Party state president Abu Asim Azmi said the near-collapse of talks at the central level did not mean that the doors to forge an alliance at the regional and state levels have been closed.

“We hope to work out an alliance with Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra soon so that we can tackle the opposition challenge unitedly,” Azmi told IANS here.

If the alliance works out on expected lines, the Samajwadi Party would settle for three seats. “While we shall not give up Mumbai North-West, for the other two we can settle for any seat like Bhiwandi or Malegaon,” Azmi said.

The Samajwadi Party has announced Azmi’s candidature from Mumbai North-West, but he may not be pitted against the Congress’s Priya Dutt, since the constituency contours have drastically altered following delimitation.

The party hopes that Bhiwandi and Malegaon with a significant Muslim population may support its candidates.

However, in the event of an alliance not materialising in Maharashtra, the party will field candidates in at least 20 constituencies across the state, according to Azmi.

In such a situation, the Samajwadi Party will contest all the seats in Mumbai, Thane, parts of Marathwada and north Maharashtra where it has influential pockets, city president Farooq Ghosi said.

“Apart from the 10 seats in Mumbai and Thane, we are prepared to put up candidates in places like Rigad, Malegaon, Nashik, Dhule, Aurangabad and Osmanabad,” Ghosi said.