Still not recovered from the shock of facing the worst ever defeat in the last assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh with just two of its candidates managing to win their seats, the Uttar Pradesh Congress on Monday declared that it would not contest the ongoing bypolls.
In the last parliamentary election also, only Congress president Sonia Gandhi managed to retain her Rae Bareli seat while all other candidates of the party, including Rahul Gandhi, lost the battle.
“We will not be contesting the Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh on Rampur and Azamgarh seats,” disclosed a party’s official communiqué, adding that the party had given its poor performance in the state's assembly elections this year so reorganisation was important first in order to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls strongly.
Sources said that the Congress high command tried to select some leaders who could contest the bypolls but after no one came forward or showed interest, a decision was taken to stay away from the contest rather than face another embarrassment.
Interestingly, since the last assembly elections, the Uttar Pradesh Congress has no president as Ajay Kumar Lallu had to resign owing responsibility for the defeat. The bypolls to Rampyr and Azamgarh Lok Sabha constituencies are scheduled on June 23 and the counting will take place on June 26.
Earlier, Mayawati had declared that Bahujan Samaj Party would not field any candidate in Mohammad Azam Khan's bastion Rampur. She, however, announced candidate for the Azamgarh seat.