UP By-Election 2024: Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi (File).
A Congress under fire after defeat in the Haryana election - a loss ascribed, in part, to it not sharing seats with state allies - will not contest any of nine Uttar Pradesh Assembly by-polls next month. It had earlier demanded at least five, including Milkipur in Ayodhya district, a seat it has not won since 1989.
Instead, the Samajwadi Party - a member of the Congress-led INDIA bloc - will field candidates for all nine seats and all nominees will take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as INDIA bloc candidates.
"We have decided to save the Constitution... reservation... and harmony. We have decided to build the country as dreamed of by Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) - Babasaheb (Ambedkar) - Lohia (Ram Manohar, an iconic freedom fighter and socialist political leader)," Akhilesh Yadav posted on X.
For added emphasis, the former UP Chief Minister's Hindi post also featured an photograph of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and himself standing side-by-side, hands clasped and raised in victory,
READ | INDIA Bloc Candidates To Fight Bypoll On 'Cycle' Symbol: Akhilesh Yadav
The SP leader stressed the alliance was not based on seat-sharing math but on the imperative to eat into the BJP's sizeable lead in the UP Assembly. "With this unprecedented cooperation, every worker of the INDIA bloc is filled with new energy and the resolve to win all nine Assembly seats" he said.
Behind the SP-Congress Deal
News of this Congress-SP alliance followed a long-running squabble between the two; the Congress reportedly wanted to contest at least five seats, but the SP was reluctant to give up more than two, given its ally's poor performance in the most recent Assembly and federal elections in the state.
In the 2022 Assembly election the BJP won 255 seats and the Samajwadi Party 111.
The Congress won just two - Rampur Khas and Pharenda.
The SP also 'won' the April-June Lok Sabha election in the state, picking up 37 of 80 seats while the BJP got 33, and the Congress six, including reclaiming the family stronghold of Amethi from Smriti Irani.
READ | "Arrogant, Overconfident": Allies Slam Congress Over Haryana Loss
The Congress' hand was further weakened after the Haryana and J&K election results, which saw the party criticised by INDIA partners for failing to work with the SP in the former. A day after the result the SP named candidates for six seats, effectively denying the Congress its demand of five.
READ | After Haryana Poll Shock, Samajwadi Party's Bypoll Snub To Congress
Congress' UP For Maharashtra Play?
Sources have said having to stand down in UP is not what the Congress wanted, but the flak received after the debacle in Haryana has left it with not many options at this time.
Bowing out of the UP by-poll, sources also suggested, could be part of a larger tactical plan - to counter the Samajwadi Party's demands to contest 12 seats in next month's Maharashtra election.
The Congress is understood to be reluctant to oblige, and feels that by letting the Samajwadi Party have the upper hand in Uttar Pradesh, it can argue against conceding seats in Maharashtra, particularly since it did well there in the Lok Sabha election, winning 13 seats to emerge as the largest single party.
In Maharashtra, the Congress and the Shiv Sena and NCP factions led by Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar have, finally, reached a seat-share deal. Each will contest 85 seats.
READ | Congress, Uddhav Sena, Sharad Pawar's NCP Get 85 Seats Each
The remaining 33 will be allotted to smaller parties, with the SP expected on that list.
'Symbol Not Important': Congress
Surendra Rajput, a state Congress leader, told news agency ANI the decision to back down in UP was based on the need to defeat the BJP. "INDIA is contesting all nine seats. For us, symbol is not important... for us end of the BJP's misgovernance is important..." he said.
There was also a reference to Akhilesh Yadav's "big-heartedness in Haryana" - a reference to the SP leader not, publicly at least, pushing for a seat-share deal in the election in the heartland state.
Mr Yadav rounded out the joint appeal by referring to his party's strength having increased "manifold with support of the Congress' top leadership and booth-level workers".
BJP's Jibe
The BJP's state unit spokesperson, Rakesh Tripathi, claimed the Samajwadi Party had extracted "revenge" for the Haryana and Madhya Pradesh elections, in which the Congress had snubbed its ally's request for seat-sharing; the Congress was eventually thumped by the BJP in both states.
Tripathi also threw out a wrestling reference, declaring the Congress had been 'thrown and pinned to the mat'. "The INDI Alliance has been broken into pieces," the BJP leader claimed, "The SP is making the BJP's 'Congress-mukt Bharat' (an India free of the Congress) slogan a reality."
UP Bypoll Date
Voting will be held on November 13 and results will be announced November 23.
A by-poll for a tenth seat - Milkipur in Ayodhya district - will take place later.
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