NEW DELHI: The rebel Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and former Union Communications Minister, Beni Prasad Verma, said his search for allies for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections had come to an end with his Samajwadi Krantikari Party (SKP) deciding to support the Congress in the seats where it had not put up candidates.

Addressing a news conference here on Tuesday, Mr. Verma said his party would contest about 150 Assembly seats and "wholeheartedly" support Congress candidates in the remaining 250 seats. He, however, did not rule out "friendly contests" with the Congress in several seats.

A four-term SP parliamentarian, Mr. Verma broke away from Chief Minister Mulayam Singh on the eve of the polls over the murder of his confidant, allegedly by another SP leader.

By putting up candidates, he initially wanted to "strengthen" Mr. Yadav after the elections. But a few days later, he announced a tie-up with Dalit leader Udit Raj and began accusing Mr. Mulayam Singh and SP leader Amar Singh of corruption.

While maintaining that he would "never" join the Congress, Mr. Verma defended Rahul Gandhi's observations on the Babri Masjid demolition by maintaining that the structure was razed down by miscreants due to inaction by the then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. "Rahul was right when he said had his family been in power, the mosque would never have been demolished." He felt some Congress leaders were again trying to isolate party president Sonia Gandhi as was done during Mr. Rao's days in power.

The former number two in the SP hierarchy before the advent of Mr. Amar Singh felt the Congress would do well in the polls.

"They already had an organisational structure in the State but what is helping them now is their confidence is high. We will support the Congress to keep out the Bharatiya Janata Party and send Mr. Mulayam Singh and Mr. Amar Singh to prison for their misdeeds. Forget the Dadri land deal to Reliance. Similar land scams have taken place in all district headquarters of the State," he alleged.

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