The sharing of 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh where by-polls are due, are turning into another tug-of-war between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party. The SP, which has already announced candidates for six seats, announced a seventh today, and said the Congress has agreed to contest only two seats.
"Our agreement is final with the Congress. Of the 10 seats, the Congress will contest on two Khair (Aligarh) and Ghaziabad, while on the rest eight,the SP will contest," SP Spokesperson Rajendra Chowdhury was quoted as saying by news agency Press Trust of India.
The Congress disagreed. The party has been demanding five of the 10 seats going to polls in November, though it is on a considerably weak footing after its disasterous performance in Haryana.
State Congress chief Ajay Rai said, "We are not aware of this. As of now, we stand by our demand of five seats".
The SP has already declared candidates for seven seats including Muzaffarnagar's Meerapur from where it has fielded Sumbhul Rana.
The Congress wanted this seat, but NDTV has confirmed that this time, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is ready to give it only two seats -- Khair and Ghaziabad.
Sources said the SP chief has relented because the party is interested in contesting two seats in Maharashtra as part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi Alliance.
After the Congress's poor performance in the Haryana election, the SP had snubbed its request for seat sharing in the by-polls. It was not just about Congress performance though. As in Madhya Pradesh, the two parties had failed to come to an understanding about the seats in Haryana -- which is one of the reasons attributed to its defeat in both states where it was widely expected to win.
In both cases, state Congress leaders were blamed - Kamal Nath in Madhya Pradesh and Bhupinder Hooda in Haryana.
Nine of the assembly seats in UP fell vacant after their MLAs were elected as MPs in the Lok Sabha polls. Bypolls are being held in the Sisamau due to the disqualification of its MLA, Samajwadi Party's Irfan Solanki, who was convicted in a criminal case. Except Milkipur, the Election Commission has announced polls on the rest nine seats.
The polling seats will be held on November 13.
The candidate for Meerapur, Sumbul Rana, is the daughter-in-law of former BSP MP Qadir Rana, who has now joined the Samajwadi Party. Sumbul Rana's husband is Shah Mohammad Rana.