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SP to go it alone in Assembly elections

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 7. The Samajwadi Party has decided to go it alone in the coming elections to four Assemblies while keeping open the option of having an understanding with secular parties in its fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the party's national executive chaired by its president, Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The party spokesman, Amar Singh, said at a press conference today that the effort was to make the party a national one by expanding its base beyond Uttar Pradesh and ensuring that the BJP loses grip over the electorate. Barring Mizoram, the party plans to contest Assembly polls in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. ``We have relegated the BJP to third place in Uttar Pradesh and now we want to bring down its position in other States too,'' Mr. Singh said.

On the party's approach towards the Congress, he said that as of now the latter had not made any offer. Though the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, had hinted at the possibility of a broader understanding among the secular parties, that party contested the Chiraigoan Assembly by-election in Uttar Pradesh last month, against the BSP-BJP combine and the SP. ``If the Congress had its compulsions in contesting Chiraigoan, we too have compulsions (in contesting coming assembly polls).''

The SP was open to talks with all secular parties and the Congress was one of them. The SP chief, Mr. Singh said, was always in the forefront in the fight against communalism but it would like to be accorded respect. On the issue of troops for Iraq, he said the unanimous resolution adopted by Parliament was a result of a consensus and any other move would be ``anti-national''.

Describing the acquittal of the accused in the Best Bakery case as ``shameful'', he criticised the Gujarat Government for not appealing against it.

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