The Congress was taken aback by the unilateral announcement of candidates for the Uttar Pradesh assembly bypolls by ally Samajwadi Party on Wednesday.
Indian National Congress in-charge of the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit, Avinash Pandey, said, “The Samajwadi Party has not discussed (seat-sharing) with the INDIA bloc coordination committee nor were we taken into confidence (before releasing the names).”
Reacting to the SP move, Pandey said the Congress was not given any information about announcement of candidates of the UP assembly bypolls nor had there been any discussion on it with the INDIA coordination committee.
He said as far as the announcement of seats and contesting elections was concerned, whatever decision the coordination committee took would be accepted by the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee.
Pandey said, “We are not overconfident but fully confident in Uttar Pradesh and due to this, along with strengthening and empowering the organisation, the work of preparing for the elections has also started. The possibilities (of alliance) always remain till the end, it cannot be denied.”
UP Congress president Ajay Rai said that he would talk to the party leadership on this issue and further decisions would be taken on the basis of what the party high command says.
“Nothing is finalised yet. Our negotiations on seat-sharing are still going on. We were expecting five seats but they have already announced candidates for six seats; we will try to get the remaining four seats,” UP Congress president Ajay Rai said.
He, however, was quick to add, “The only surety as of now is that we will contest the bypolls together. Seat distribution will be sorted out soon.”
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party took a jibe at the announcement of candidates by SP for UP assembly by-elections.
BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said the SP-Congress alliance was shaky. He said the list of candidates released by the SP was the effect of Haryana assembly election results.
“SP has shown Congress its status by declaring candidates on the seats claimed by Congress. The Haryana result has increased the morale of BJP workers. BJP alliance will win all the seats in the UP by-elections,” he said.
