Matrer of just 3 seats! Congress may withdraw from UP by-elections

Lucknow: By-elections are to be held on 9 seats of UP on 13 November. Before these by-elections, the relationship between Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) seems to be getting sour. SP has left Aligarh’s Khair and Ghaziabad seats for Congress. Congress was demanding five seats. The party was expecting that if it demands five, it should get at least three seats, but this did not happen.

The party failed to get seats as per its expectations on the bargaining table and SP left only two seats for it. The friendship between SP and Congress is stuck in the fight for two and five seats. Congress is said to be upset with SP’s decision to leave only two seats in the by-election. Now there is also talk that Congress may withdraw from UP, it may refuse to field a candidate on any seat.

Sources say that Congress may not field a candidate itself and may support SP on the lines of the by-election held for Ghosi seat of Mau. However, no official statement has come from the Congress regarding this. Many reasons are being given for the displeasure of the Congress. The organisational structure of the Congress in UP is not very strong anyway, secondly the track record on the seats that the party has got has also not been very encouraging. Ghaziabad is an urban seat and is considered to be the stronghold of the BJP.

In the last election, the party’s candidate could not even touch the figure of 1500 votes on the Khair seat of Aligarh. Charu Ken, for whom the Congress was demanding the Khair seat, did get more than 60 thousand votes but then she was the BSP candidate. Congress leaders feel that when they are taking on the BJP in its two strongholds, they should have also got such a seat where there are chances of victory.

That is why the Congress was claiming Majhawan in Mirzapur and Phulpur in Prayagraj or any one of these seats. There were preparations to field Ajay Rai’s son from the Majhawan seat but the SP has fielded its candidates on these seats. The SP is also announcing its candidates one after the other.

10 seats of UP assembly are vacant, out of which by-elections are being held on nine seats except one seat Milkipur. Baba Gorakhnath, who was a BJP candidate in the 2022 assembly elections, had challenged the election of the then winning candidate Awadhesh Prasad in the court. This petition was pending due to which the Election Commission did not announce the election schedule for Milkipur.

Baba Gorakhnath has said in his petition that the notary used by Awadhesh Prasad at the time of nomination was taken from a vendor whose license had expired. Among the seats in UP where by-elections are being held, by-elections are being held for the Karhal seat vacated by Akhilesh Yadav’s resignation as well as Sisamau, Katehari, Karhal and Kundarki seats.