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SP will not ally with Congress in Maharashtra

The Samajwadi Party has ruled out any truck with the Congress in the ensuing assembly elections in Maharashtra, saying that the Congress is now speaking on Hindutva like the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Samajwadi Party spokesperson Amar Singh told reporters that in the 2000 assembly elections, the SP will not have any understanding with the Congress. "It is a matter of concern that the Congress is now speaking in tune with the BJP and praising Hindutva," he said.

Earlier in the day, he held a meeting with the grassroot workers of the party in the state to chalk out electoral strategies for the ensuing elections to keep the Shiv Sena and its ally, the BJP, out of power. He said in the meeting, the general feeling of party workers was that there should not be any understanding with the Congress in the state for the assembly elections. In the 1998 Lok Sabha elections, the SP and the Congress had seat adjustments, but for the next assembly elections it has ruled out any sort of understanding with the Congress.

Singh alleged that the recent resolution of the Congress Working Committee praising Hindutva actually boosted the fundamentalist and communal forces. Also, the statement by All India Congress Committee secretary (economic affairs) Jayaram Ramesh that aggressive secularism should not be followed, casts a doubt in the mind of the SP and Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha about the secularism followed by Congress, he said.

Moreover, he said Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Orissa chief minister and senior Congressman J B Patnaik on discussions on conversions, has brought to light that the views of both the BJP and the Congress match.

UNI

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