Even as the Congress has formalised its candidates for all 403 seats for the Assembly poll, the hope of an electoral alliance with the ruling Samajwadi Party is still on the cards.
Sources confirmed that the infighting within the SP has only confused the workers and the leaders and the Congress is in a dilemma whether or not to go for a pre-poll truck with the ruling party.
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was expected to meet Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka in New Delhi on Monday, but the meet could not materialise due to the ongoing feud within the SP. The move of a patch-up between SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his CM son Akhilesh seems to have derailed coalition talks between the two parties.
A senior Congress leader peferring anonymity said that the party was still hopeful for an alliance with the Akhilesh faction but since the time left is little, hence the state Congress brass has formalised the candidates to avoid a mess if the colaition did not materailsied.
“The chances of a pre-poll alliance has led to stalling of all campaigning by the Congress and now the rank and file are a tad confused about their role in the elections,” he said.
Another leader said, “Congress has picked up campaign in a big way from its ‘27 Saal, UP Behal’ Yatras. But after the 28-day tour, suddenly party leaders have stopped all programmes and started talking of a truck.”
State Congress chief Raj Babbar said, “We have processed to select candidates for all the seats. All names have been recommended to the Congress Central Election Committee. There are some Assembly seats on which more than three aspirants applied.”
On January 5, a day after the Election Commission issued the notification for the 2017 Assembly polls, the Congress started its exercise to screen candidates and cleared the names of all excpet 20 MlAs who were still in the party but had insisted to contest from their old seat.
Chairman of the party’s co-ordination committee, Pramod Tiwari informed that with sitting MlAs willing to contest from their old seats, 20 such seats have been cleared.
“Two factors were considered while deciding the candidates — winnability and loyalty,” he disclosed.
On January 4, Congress general secretary and UP in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad had said, “As of now, we are working on recommendations of the screening committee for all 403 seats. However, what can happen in future, it will be known only later. But, there is a lot of pressure on secular parties (for an alliance).”