In MP, the Congress has agreed to allot the Khajuraho seat to the SP and will field its candidates from the remaining 28 constituencies in the state…reports Asian Lite News
Troubles are far from over even for the Congress after it inked a seat-sharing pact with INDIA alliance partner Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
A brief analysis of election figures shows that the 17 seats of Congress are those, where it fared poorly in the 2019 general elections. In 12 seats, the party even lost deposits and on one seat – Bansgaon – it did not even field its candidate in 2019 elections.
In the 2019 elections, the Congress contested a total of 67 seats but lost deposits in about 63 seats, besides the humiliating defeat that it had to face in its pocket borough Amethi.
In 2024 polls, the seats where Congress will contest include Rae Bareli, Amethi, Kanpur, Fatehpur Sikri, Bansgaon, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Maharajgandj, Varansi, Amroha, Jhnasi, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Sitapur, Barabanki and Deoria.
The seat-sharing agreement between the two parties will indeed give impetus and strength to the INDIA alliance.
Tense talks
Under their agreement for UP, the Congress will contest 17 seats out of 80 in the state, leaving the remaining 63 seats for the SP and its smaller allies.
In MP, the Congress has agreed to allot the Khajuraho seat to the SP and will field its candidates from the remaining 28 constituencies in the state.
Congress sources said that All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra played a “crucial role” in resolving the standoff between the two INDIA parties by speaking with SP national president Akhilesh Yadav over the phone to clinch the deal.
Out of total 80 seats, Akhilesh Yadav-led SP allotted 17 seats to the grand old party and one to Chandrashekhar Azad’s party. The SP will field candidates on rest of the 62 seats.
The poll alliance between the two parties revives the memory of 2017 Assembly elections, when the “two boys” (Akhilesh Yadav and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi) joined hands to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
‘People will vote for us’
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party MP Dimple Yadav congratulated the Congress and the Samajwadi Party on the confirmation of seat sharing in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, and excluded confidence in winning the polls. The SP leader said that the party was in support of the alliance from the beginning.
“From the start itself, the Samajwadi Party wanted the alliance, there was a little bit of delay because BJP is in front of us. I want to congratulate the Samajwadi Party and Congress as the alliance has reached its destination. Its results will be very good and people will support us. In the coming election, people will vote for us,” said Dimple Yadav.
Alleging that the central government and the current state government in UP have ruined the lives of women, youth, farmers and soldiers, the SP leader said that people in the state people are angry and disappointed.
“There was talk of four pillars in the country; women, youth, farmers and soldiers. But no one is happy. All of them are angry and disappointed. Earlier the children of the farmers used to join the army, and the economy was good, but the Central Government for 10 years and the Government of Uttar Pradesh for about 7 years ruined them all,” she said.
When asked about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s remark that he spotted youths passed out drunk on the streets of Varanasi and elsewhere in Uttar Pradesh during his ongoing ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, the Samajwadi Party leader said, “The youths are unemployed, they have no work, they are desperate, their hopes are gradually decreasing, and the government is not able to provide jobs.”
“Some of them got jobs in the police department but that too became a subject of investigation after the paper leak incidents. The government has badly shaken both the pillars of the country, the farmers and the soldiers,” she added.
“All is well that ends well. Yes, there will be an alliance. There is no conflict. Everything will be out and clear soon,” Yadav stated while speaking to reporters. (ANI)
‘We don’t need Kamal Nath in BJP’
Madhya Pradesh minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kailash Vijayvargiya asserted that the saffron party does not need Congress veteran and former state chief minister Kamal Nath and its doors are closed for the latter.
While reacting to queries over speculation of Nath switching sides, Vijayvargiya said, “I had said there is no need of Kamal Nath in our party and that’s why its doors were closed for him.”
The state minister’s remarks came amid the rumours of Congress veteran’s BJP switch plan. Meanwhile, several party leaders from Nath’s stronghold MP’s Chhindwara district joined the BJP on Wednesday.
However, several Congress leaders including Digvijaya Singh and the party’s state unit chief Jitu Patwari have refuted the claims of Nath joining the BJP and claimed that the rumours were spread by the BJP and media.
Kamal Nath’s loyalist Sajjan Singh Verma has said that the veteran leader has not made any decision on leaving the grand old party, while the party’s general secretary Jitendra Singh has claimed that the veteran leader and his son Nakul Nath would participate in the grand old party’s ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra when it enters the state.
There has been a buzz among the political corridors that Kamal Nath and his son were likely to end their ties with the Congress.
As per reports, Kamal Nath is said to be disgruntled over not getting a Rajya Sabha seat and also Rahul Gandhi being opposed to him since the party lost the assembly polls late last year. In the 2023 Madhya Pradesh elections, the BJP decimated the Congress after winning 163 of the 230 assembly seats. The Congress managed to win just 66 seats. Nath was later replaced as the Madhya Pradesh unit chief.
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