Even as speculation of a ‘pact’ between Congress and Samajwadi Party (Akhilesh Yadav group) is rife, workers and senior leaders preparing the ground to fight the Assembly poll are annoyed in both parties, especially in Congress.
Only the sitting legislators have a ‘smile’ on their faces as they perceive it as an ‘opportunity’ to ride safely to the UP Assembly with each other’s help. “I was not upset with the speculation of a Congress-SP pact. What worries me more is that how we will face the public when we go together after publicly criticising Akhilesh Yadav and his Government for lawlessness, underdevelopment and the present mess in UP,” quipped a senior Congress leader seeking ticket from lucknow.
“I was surprised that senior Congress leaders conveniently forgot our successful campaign ‘27 Saal-UP Behal’, in which we criticised the BJP, BSP along with the ruling SP holding them responsible for pushing the State towards backwardness,” said the leader.
“We may manage to get some more seats in the Assembly elections, butthe truck will do more damage to the party in the long run and demotivate the workers,” he opined.
Interestingly, some youths leaders who were upbeat after Rahul Gandhi assured of promoting the youngsters in the elections, are now depressed and were even started criticising the party think tank through a newly fomed ‘Whatsapp’ group.
Rs Rs We do not expect statements like the one made by our CM candidate Sheila Dikshit on withdrawing her candidature in favour of Akhilesh Yadav. She even praised the CM for his work even when a coalition is yet to take shape,” posted a frustrated youth leader.
Rs Rs Rightly said, Sheila will soon turn out to be another Reeta Bhauguna Joshi for the Congress,” commented another young leader on the social site attacking the leadership.
The situation in Samajwadi Party is no different than the Congress. Rs Rs We are hopeful that some seats, where the party was not good stead would be given to SP youth leaders. But after the rift between Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav damaged the party’s prospects, our future has further been hit by the proposed coalition with the Congress,” asserted a young leader from the Akhilesh Yadad group.
Contrary to this, sitting MlAs of both Congress and SP were keen that the two parties join their battle against the BJP.
“It would be wise to go for a coalition with the SP. After Congress-SP pact, the Congress wil definitely win at least 50 seats, otherwise we could not even reached double figures,” said a Congress MlA from east UP.
Meanwhile Congress sources confirmed that the party brass in closely watching the development in SP particularly the fate of the Rs symbol’ which is likely to be taken by the Election Commission on Friday.
“If the Akhilesh Yadav group succeeds in procuring the symbol, then the pact between the Congress and SP will be made official within this week,” said a Congress leader and added that the first list of candidates was likely to be announced on coming Sunday.