After Mayawati’s BSP, the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Saturday ruled out an alliance with the Congress for the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh assembly elections.

The Bahajan Samaj Party (BSP) had recently announced that it would not have any alliance with the Congress in the Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan assembly elections which will be held between November 12 and December 7.

“We will fight elections in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and speak to the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) and the BSP for an alliance in the two states. The Congress has made us wait for long. We can’t wait anymore. We are already in touch with the GGP for an alliance in Chhattisgarh. We will do the same for MP,” SP chief Akhilesh Yadav told media persons on the sidelines of a convention of senior teachers at the party headquarters here.

In an indirect reference to the statement of senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh that the BSP was not aligning with the Congress against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh for fear of the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation, Yadav said parties like the SP and BSP were not scared of anything.

The Election Commission on Friday announced polls in Chhattisgarh will be held in two phases - on November 12 and 20, while Madhya Pradesh will have voting on November 28 along with Mizoram, while Rajasthan and Telangana will vote on December 7. Votes in all five states will be counted on December 11.

The Congress and the SP contested the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls together in 2017 but the alliance did not work and the BJP stormed to power with a landslide victory.

On whether the SP would support Congress president Rahul Gandhi as Prime Minister if a Congress-led alliance won 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Yadav said this was not relevant just now.

“As of now, I want that the BJP-led government is voted out of power,” he said.

The former UP chief minister said the people wanted a change (of government) and added that they should not expect development from the BJP-led government.

He said chief minister Yogi Adityanath was still inaugurating projects of the SP government. “Don’t expect anything from them (BJP government),” said Yadav.

About the law and order situation in the state, Yadav said the BJP government had lost the faith of the people. “I had congratulated the DGP when he assumed office. He assured me justice would be done to all. The people are still waiting for justice,” he said.

About black bands worn by some ‘protesting’ UP policemen on Friday, Yadav said the Adityanath government was misusing institutions and so “it would have to bear the fallout of such misuse.”