A day after Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said that a Grand Alliance might be possible in the state before the 2017 state polls, Yadav seemed to backtrack. Besides there being no response from opposition parties in the state – including Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party – the Samajwadi Party leader also said that alliance politics in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were very different, The Times of India reported. On Monday, Yadav said he himself was confused about what he said, reported Hindustan Times. “Every paper has a different story on what I said. I did not say anything on alliance or grand alliance but you published reports,” he said, adding that party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav would make the final decision. He also said that he would need to wait and see if BSP and the Bharatiya Janata Party formed an alliance. Leaders from both BSP and Rashtriya Lok Dal told Hindustan Times that a tie-up with the SP was unlikely.

Yadav, on Sunday, had said that an alliance similar to Bihar’s Grand Alliance (which comprised Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, and the Congress) could be formed in Uttar Pradesh as well. The alliance in Bihar swept the recent Assembly polls.