Congress to leave seven seats for SP-BSP-RLD alliance in UP

Tribune News Service
Lucknow, March 17

Congress will leave seven seats for SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh, a senior party leader announced on Sunday.

At a press conference he held on Sunday afternoon, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Raj Babbar said that the party will not pit its candidates against leaders like Samajwadi Party veteran Mulayam Singh Yadav in Mainpuri, Dimple Yadav in Kannauj and Akshay Yadav in Firozabad.  The party also will not field candidates against leaders like Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh and vice-chief Jayant Chaudhary, wherever they decide to contest from, he said.   

Congress also announced alliance with Jan Akhikar Party, which will fight the election in seven seats: five— Jhansi, Chandauli, Etah, Basti and one undecided seat—using its own election symbol and two, Ghazipur and another undecided seat, on Congress tickets.

Babbar also said that Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad had asked political parties to not field against Prime Minister Modi, but that the decision wasn’t “in his hands”.  Azad, a Dalit leader, recently announced that he would contest the elections from Varanasi—Modi’s current constituency that he had swept in 2014 general elections.  

Meanwhile, the party has yet to receive permission for All India Congress Committee general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s boat campaign, called ‘Boat pe charcha’—a planned interaction with students.  

General elections will be held in seven phases from April 11. Votes will be counted on May 23. Uttar Pradesh is one of three states that will vote in all seven phases.