By IANS,
New Delhi : Samajwadi Party national general secretary Amar Singh Wednesday attended a seminar organised by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, further stoking rumours of a possible tie-up between the Congress and his party.
Singh chaired a seminar session on the ‘Role of private sector for inclusive national health care system’. Though Singh was invited in his capacity as the chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Health and Family Welfare, his presence sparked speculation about a likely alliance between the two parties.
Both the Congress and Samajwadi Party have been tight-lipped about the possibilities of a tie-up, but recent developments in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka show that an alliance may be brewing.
Digvijay Singh, Congress national general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, had told reporters during the Uttar Pradesh Congress conclave March 31 that a tie-up with Samajwadi Party was possible to counter “communal forces”.
In Karnataka, which goes to polls in May, the two parties are said to be working out a tacit understanding for 12 seats in the 224 member assembly. S. Bangarappa, Samajwadi Party’s Karnataka unit chief, had asked for more seats but Congress leaders did not agree to it.
Amar Singh too did not deny an arrangement with the Congress in Karnataka. “I see no harm in the secular parties coming together to keep the communal forces at bay in the state,” he told IANS.
The Congress, however, is keeping all rumours at bay for the moment. “It is still too early to say anything of an alliance,” said M. Veerappa Moily, head of the Congress media cell.