LUCKNOW: Upset with being allotted just two assembly seats in poll-bound Maharashtra, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has announced it will field seven candidates, highlighting a rift within the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and underscoring what SP leaders describe as a lack of support for smaller INDIA bloc allies.The SP’s decision to contest independently comes after the MVA allotted just two seats to the party, a move that SP leaders say exposes a lack of unity and consultation within the opposition alliance. The SP has declared candidates for Bhiwandi East, Bhiwandi West, Tuljapur, Paranda, Aurangabad East, Malegaon Central, and Dhule City assembly seats.According to sources within the SP, the party had demanded a dozen seats from the MVA but decided to proceed with its own slate of candidates after no agreement was reached. Abu Azmi, SP Maharashtra state president, expressed dissatisfaction, saying, “They have left only two seats for us. They did not even talk to us that only two seats were allotted to us. We only got to know about it through the media. They did not even invite us for the meeting.”In contrast, the MVA has already fielded candidates for six of the constituencies contested by the SP, except Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar, where Abu Azmi himself is a candidate, and Bhiwandi West. The SP’s announcement follows earlier tensions in Uttar Pradesh, where a seat-sharing arrangement with Congress for nine by-poll-bound seats failed, resulting in Congress withdrawing from the UP bypoll race and leaving the field to the SP.
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