New Delhi: Leaders of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh said they were taken by surprise when ally Samajwadi Party (SP) Wednesday declared its candidates for six of the 10 assembly seats where bypolls are due. The timing of the announcement was also curious—less than 24 hours after the Congress failed to secure a majority in Haryana, and emerged as the weak link in the alliance with the National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir.
Congress leaders ThePrint spoke to said the Akhilesh Yadav-led party declared its candidates even as seat-sharing talks were still on.
“Nothing is finalised yet. Our seat negotiations are still going on. We were expecting five seats but now they have announced six already, we will try to get the remaining four,” Congress state president Ajay Rai said. He, however, was quick to add, “The only surety as of now is that we will contest bypolls together. Seat distribution will be sorted out soon.”
Speaking to news agency ANI in Kanpur, Congress general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Avinash Pandey too admitted Wednesday that the party was taken by surprise by ally Samajwadi Party’s announcement.
“No information was given to us before releasing the list. There has been no discussion with the coordination committee of the INDIA alliance yet … As far as the announcement of seats and contesting elections is concerned, whatever decision the coordination committee of INDIA alliance takes, it will be accepted by the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee. Possibilities (of alliance) always remain till the end, it cannot be denied,” he said.
Samajwadi Party, on the other hand, said the Congress’s claim to five of the 10 seats was unfounded. Its spokesperson Ashutosh Verma in a post on X shared data of the previous assembly elections to underline that the party either won or came in second on all 10 seats where bypolls are due.
Analyze before commenting:
2024 Loksabha #Uttarpradesh
————————————————@samajwadiparty performances (37/62) =59.7%@INCIndia performance (06/17)=35%2022Assembly Election
—————————————————-1-Kundarki. SP 1st. INC 5th
2-Karhal SP 1st.…— Dr. Ashutosh Verma (Patel) (@DrVermaAshutosh) October 7, 2024
“The Congress should understand its ground reality before thinking of bargaining for seats. I think they must support the SP unconditionally,” Verma told ThePrint.
The Election Commission is yet to announce dates for the bypolls.
Sources close to Samajwadi Party chief and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, meanwhile, said the party is willing to give the Congress one or two seats but only if they “request for it politely”. Among the seats the party is willing to part with is Ghaziabad, where the Congress candidate came in second in the Lok Sabha elections.
But it is no secret that the unilateral declaration of six candidates by the Samajwadi Party has landed the Congress in a fix. Some political observers see this as a sign of the Congress losing its bargaining power in the aftermath of its poor showing in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir.
The Samajwadi Party had in fact sought two seats in Haryana, but the Congress did not act on the request.
Bypolls are due in 10 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh: Katehari (Ambedkar Nagar), Karhal (Mainpuri), Milkipur (Faizabad), Meerapur (Muzaffarnagar), Ghaziabad, Majhawan (Mirzapur), Sishamau (Kanpur City), Khair (Aligarh), Phulpur (Prayagraj) and Kundarki (Moradabad).
While nine of these seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs were elected as MPs in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, bypolls in the Sishamau seat was necessitated by the disqualification of SP MLA Irfan Solanki, who was convicted in a criminal case in June this year.
Of the 10 seats, BJP won four (Phulpur, Ghaziabad, Khair and Manhwan) in the 2022 assembly elections, while the Meerapur seat was won by the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and the remaining five seats (Sishamau, Katehari, Karhal, Milkipur and Kundarki) by the Samajwadi Party.
— Samajwadi Party (@samajwadiparty) October 9, 2024
Among the six candidates declared Wednesday are Akhilesh’s cousin Tej Pratap Yadav (Karhal), Irfan Solanki’s wife Nasim (Sishamau), and Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad’s son Ajit (Milkipur). The party has fielded Mustafa Siddiqi from Phulpur, Shobhawati Verma from Katehari, and Dr Jyoti Bind from Manjhwa.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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