'Must prevent division of votes to defeat BJP in 2019'

Lucknow: UP Congress chief Raj Babbar on Thursday said in order to defeat the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, division of opposition votes must not take place in the state.

On speculation of Congress forming an alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh, Babbar said: "Our party believes that for defeating the BJP, division of votes should not take place. We tried this in Gorakhpur and Phoolpur (bypolls)." "In Kairana, we never sought any cooperation despite the fact that we had 2.5 lakh votes. Our aim was to defeat the BJP. We moved a step backward and never took credit for it," he added.

However, Babbar noted that the experiment had failed in the 2017 Assembly polls.

"In the 2017 UP Assembly polls it was an experiment with the aim of defeating the BJP. The experiment was not successful," he said.

Babbar stressed that the final decision on the alliance will be taken by the party high command which will be acceptable to party workers in the state and across the country. Meanwhile, convenor of the communication department of the Congress Priyanka Chaturvedi accused UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of attempting to stoke a controversy for refusing to wear a cap offered to him at the mausoleum of Saint Kabir Das in Maghar last evening.