Digvijaya Singh praised SP president Akhilesh Yadav for his leadership qualities, but disagreed with Mr Nath, the Madhya Pradesh Congress head, over his choice of words while dismissing his (Yadav’s) criticism for not leaving any seat in MP for the Uttar Pradesh-based party for the November 17 polls.
The former CM said he had suggested Mr Nath leave four assembly seats for the SP, which wanted to field nominees in half a dozen segments.
Talking to reporters at his residence in Bhopal, he sought to downplay the war of wards between the Congress and the SP that erupted after the national outfit did not allocate any assembly seat to the Yadav-led party despite the two being constituents of the INDIA alliance.
“It is okay… friendly fights do take place between alliance partners, but I know the SP and Akhilesh will never go with the BJP,” said the Rajya Sabha member.
After the SP president slammed the Congress leadership last week for not having an alliance in Madhya Pradesh, Mr Nath, while replying to questions from media persons on the tie-up issue, had reportedly said, “Chhodiye Akhilesh Vakhilesh.
Digvijaya Singh said “Nath had sent Congress leader Ashok Singh to me for a discussion with SP leaders led by Deep Narayan Yadav. We had a discussion in this room (of his residence in Bhopal). They (SP) had won one seat in Bijawar (in Bundelkhand region in the 2018 polls) and were second in two others. The SP wanted six seats, but I suggested Nath leave four seats for the SP.
