Chandrashekhar Azad: Will Wait For Akhilesh Bhaiya’s Call Till Monday 10 AM

Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad has said he would wait for Akhilesh Yadav's call till 10 am tomorrow (Monday) on the issue of alliance with Samajwadi Party coalition in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly election 2022. Chandrashekhar is a popular Dalit face in UP politics.

Lucknow: A day after ruling out the possibility of an alliance between Azad Samaj Party, and the Samajwadi Party (SP) for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad on Sunday said he would wait for Akhilesh Yadav’s call till 10 am tomorrow (Monday) on the issue of forging an alliance with the latter’s party.

Speaking to a private news channel Chandrashekhar Azad said his party will fight the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tooth and nail and ensure their defeat in the upcoming UP assembly election. Accusing the saffron camp of selling the country to the corporates, the Bhim Army chief further added that BJP is denying people fair representation and reservation through privatization.

“I am not in politics for posts or seats. I have always fought for Dalits, Muslims and Socially deprived Section,” Azad added.

Notably, Chandrashekhar Azad on Saturday had ruled out the possibility of an alliance between his party, Azad Samaj Party, and the Samajwadi Party (SP) for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly election.

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav also alleged that Azad refused to form an alliance with SP abruptly after speaking to someone on the phone. “I had allotted two seats to him, but he (Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad) received some call and refused to be part of the alliance,” Yadav said during the press conference in Lucknow.

“Whatever he (Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad) spoke to the Samajwadi Party, I listened to him and gave him the seats of Rampur Maniharan and Ghaziabad. But, after talking to someone on the phone, they told me that they cannot contest elections together,” he added.

Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022:

The Election Commission of India on Saturday declared the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections 2022 schedule, announcing voting in seven phases on the following dates: February 10 (Thursday), February 14 (Monday), February 20 (Sunday), February 23 (Wednesday), February 27 (Sunday), March 3 (Thursday) and March 7 (Monday).

The Uttar Pradesh Assembly has a total of 403 seats, with 202 being the majority mark. These 403 constituencies are distributed across seven broad regions – West UP (44 constituencies), Ruhelkhand (52), Doab (73), Awadh (78), Bundelkhand (19), East UP (76) and North East UP (61).

To recall, in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh elections, the BJP registered a massive victory securing 312 seats, while the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party managed 47. Mayawati’s BSP had to contend with 19 seats and the Congress was relegated to the fourth spot with just seven seats.