In a new twist to the biennial elections to the State legislative council to be held on January 23, State Congress announced to support the ruling Samajwadi Party candidates. There are 13 candidates for 12 seats of the council which included 8 of the SP, three of BSP and two of BJP. State Congress president Nirmal Khatri said here on Monday afternoon that the Party has decided to support the secular forces in order to restrict the communal forces, BJP. He also alleged that the BJP was indulging in horse-trading of the MlAs in order to manage additional votes for win of its candidate. BJP requires 21 additional votes for win of its second candidate.
Meanwhile, UP Congress legislature party leader Pradeep Mathur told reporters here on Monday afternoon that the Party has issued a whip for the MlAs to vote in favour of the SP. “ We have already issued a whip and a direction has been issued to all the 28 MlAs to be present here on January 22 when they will be given the direction of the party high command,” he said. Giving reason for supporting the SP candidates, Mathur said,” it is a give and take matter as SP had supported two Rajya Sabha members of the party in the past and this time we are giving them our support.” Congress has 28 members in the Assembly and they could have won a seat by managing 3 additional votes. But they did not give any candidate and instead announced to support the SP. SP require just 8 additional votes for its eighth candidate. Mathur said,” we have directed all the MlAs of the party to vote in favour of the SP candidates and none else even if the candidates get more than the vote required.”
However, Congress president Nirmal Khatri maintained that supporting the SP in the UP council polls doesn’t mean that the Party will have any truck with them in future. “All the three political parties in UP— SP, BSP and BJP are enemies of the Congress and we will have no relationship with any of them in future,” Khatri announced. He said that the council elections were exceptional as we had to select between a secular and communal forces, hence the party decided to support the SP candidates. In the past two Rajya Sabha members— Pramod Tiwari and P l Punia were elected unopposed from UP separately with the support of the ruling SP.