A day after tie-up talks seemed doomed, ex-UP CM says won’t field candidates against Sonia, Rahul; Cong says nothing 'unholy' about an alliance

A day after the seat-sharing talks between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party seemed on the verge of collapse, both sides on Thursday changed tack, saying the hopes of a tie-up for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls were very much alive.

The first move to scale down the tension was made by SP chief Mulayam Singh Ydaav, who said his party would not field candidates in Amethi and Rai Bareli, from where Rahul and Sonia Gandhi will be in the fray as Congress candidates.

"Alliance or no alliance, my party will not field candidates from Amethi and Rai Bareli," Yadav said in Etawah a day after the Congress released its list of 24 candidates, a move seemed calibrated to raise the heat on the SP.

Yadav said his party was interested in having an alliance with the Congress and "was hopeful of ending the impasse through talks". "I will personally meet Sonia Gandhi very soon to talk over the issue," the former CM said.

Shortly after Yadav made his goodwill gesture in Etawah, Congress leader in-charge of UP Digvijay Singh said UPCC Chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi had spoken to the SP chief, indicating that channels of communication have not broken down. "The alliance is neither unholy, nor it is over," he said, distancing the party from the statement of senior leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi, a known detractor of SP leader Amar Singh, who had dubbed the tie-up as "unholy".

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