Amidst speculations of a split in the INDIA bloc in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav tried to dispel these speculations on Thursday. Talking to media persons after visiting his father and party patron, Mulayam Singh Yadav, on his second death anniversary, Yadav said the Samajwadi Party and the Congress would contest the bye-elections together. INDIA bloc is intact in Uttar Pradesh. SP and Congress will contest the forthcoming UP by-elections together,” Yadav confidently announced.
The Samajwadi Party announced the names of candidates for the six by-election seats on October 9: Karhal, Sisamau, Katheri, Phulpur, Milkipur, and Majhwa. This is shocking to Congress. “No discussions were held on these decisions within the coordination committee of the INDIA alliance,” said Avinash Pandey, state in-charge of Congress.
That is true. Nobody informed us about it. The coordination committee of the INDIA alliance has not spoken to us as yet. Whatever decision the coordination committee takes, the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee will abide by it. We are confident, and preparations for the election have already begun,” said Pandey, showing readiness for cooperation amidst a lack of communication.
UP Congress President Ajay Rai, too, supported Pandey’s statements:
“Whatever in-charge has said will be done. The central leadership will take the final call. The alliance with the Samajwadi Party will remain as usual.”
The by-elections to ten assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, including Katehari, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, Sisamau, Karhal, Milkipur, Meerapur, Khair, Phulpur, and Kundarki, are slated for later this year.
Reacting to the looming elections, the Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Keshav Prasad Maurya, declared that the BJP is geared up for the elections.
“The BJP is doing strenuous preparations from the booth level to the Vidhan Sabha level in all ten constituencies. We are confident not only of winning the lost seats but also of those which Samajwadi Party has,”
Maurya said.
Of the ten seats going into the poll, five were earlier won by the Samajwadi Party, three by the BJP, and one each by its allies, the Rashtriya Lok Dal and the Nishad Party.
