Nitish Kumar to support SP-Cong alliance

The Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance received a shot in its arm on Sunday as the   Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar led Janata Dal (United) and former UP governor and Congress leader Aziz Quereshi and great grandson of Dr B R Ambedkar, Raj Ratan Ambedkar announced to support the alliance and appealed to the voters to support Akhilesh Yadav to become the Chief Minister of the state for the second term.

Quereshi claimed that Akhilesh Yadav is more pro-muslim than his father Mulayam Singh Yadav and the statement made by Mulayam few days back questioning the secular credentials of his son was without any basis.

JD (U) state president Suresh Niranjan addressing a press conference at the SP state office here on Sunday said that the decision to support the alliance was taken to prevent the division of the secular votes. He said that if the SP-Congress alliance so desires then the JD (U) president and Bihar chief Minister Nitish Kumar can also campaign for the alliance candidates. Asked about their earlier decision to go with Rashtriya Lok Dal in UP, Niranjan said that negotiations were held with Ajit Singh but they were inconclusive.

class="MsoNoSpacing" style="outline: none;">Former governor Aziz Quereshi, who also extended his support to the alliance appealed to the Muslims to support the SP-Congress candidates as UP assembly elections, will decide the fate of the country.  “The BJP was trying to change the idea of India which is secular and pluralistic   and the saffron party is running an organised disinformation campaign against Akhilesh Yadav,” said Qureshi.

Querreshi ,who  as acting governor of UP  had given to the Jauhar University  Bill floated by SP leader Azam Khan,  said that it was Congress president Sonia Gandhi who had asked him to approve the bill of the university  and accord  the institution a minority status.

Meanwhile, Raj Ratan Ashok Ambedkar, great grandson of DrB R Ambedkar, also supported the alliance. He cautioned the dalit community from the politics of Mayawati saying ``BSP chief has inflicted long term damage to the interests of the dalit community and is likely to join hands with the BJP to form the next government in UP’’.