No alliance with Congress; SP to fight on its own in UP: Kironmay Nanda

LUCKNOW: Amid speculation of a tie-up with Congress for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, Samajwadi Party today said it would contest the polls "on its own" and would not go for an alliance with that party.

"We will contest the Assembly polls on our own. We will not go for an alliance with the Congress which has no base in Uttar Pradesh. Rahul Gandhi's Kisan Yatra will not have any impact. People of the state want development and they know that Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is working hard towards that," SP vice-president Kironmay Nanda told reporters replying to a query on his party's stance regarding an alliance with the Congress.

"The SP will form a majority government in Uttar Pradesh in 2017 as it did in 2012. We have Akhilesh whose image is clean and who is the youth face of the party," he added.

Nanda announced that the party's youth wing, SP Yuvjan Sabha, will take out the 'Mulayam Sandesh Yatra' on September 10 and in the first phase, it will go to Kanpur, Jhansi, Chitrakut divisions and pass through 19 Assembly constituencies.

"The second phase will begin from September 25 from (SP supremo) Mulayam Singh Yadav's residence in Delhi and it will go to Sitapur," he said, adding that the achievements of the SP government in Uttar Pradesh will be highlighted during the yatra.