Lucknow: Seven years after they got here collectively for the Uttar Pradesh meeting polls, the Samajwadi Celebration (SP) and the Congress have joined fingers but once more for the Lok Sabha polls, with the latter being allotted 17 of the 80 seats in UP, and the SP being given one seat in Madhya Pradesh as a part of the deal.
As a part of the seat sharing association, the Congress, aside from Amethi and Raebareli seats, represented by senior social gathering leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi over time, has additionally obtained Varanasi, Prayagraj, Fatehpur Sikri, Saharanpur, Maharajganj, Bansgaon, Kanpur Nagar, Amroha, Jhansi, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Sitapur, Barabanki and Deoria as a part of the seat sharing association.
Talking to media individuals Wednesday, Congress’s UP in-charge Avinash Pandey mentioned that the social gathering will help candidates fielded by the SP and different events within the remaining 63 seats within the state as a part of the alliance as a way to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP).
“I would like to thank our national president (Mallikarjun) Khargeji and SP president Akhilesh Yadavji, along with (SP’s) Udayveer Singhji and Ram Gopal Yadavji for the positive discussions to ensure that we put up a strong front against the BJP and defeat it,” he mentioned.
SP chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary mentioned that with the formation of the alliance, a message goes to the complete nation that the nation needs to be saved.
“The country is in bad shape. Farmers and youth are on the streets. They have become the target of the policies and injustices of the BJP. To save them and others, we request voters, farmers and our sisters, who have faced injustice continuously under the BJP rule, to exercise their voting right with honesty and without bias,” he mentioned, to the media.
Requested if Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi will battle from Raebareli and Amethi, Avinash Pandey merely mentioned that each seats have been strongholds of the Congress, and the Gandhi household considers these as their house.
On hypothesis that the Congress is making declare to 2 extra seats — Lakhimpur Kheri and Shravasti — Pandey mentioned each side had made some claims and if any extra points had been to return up, they’d be introduced earlier than the nationwide presidents of each events who will take a name.
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How SP obtained Congress to hurry up seat sharing talks
The SP had launched its first checklist of candidates on 30 January, its second checklist on 19 February and the third checklist on 20 February — in all containing the names of 31 candidates.
The third checklist, which included a candidate for Varanasi seat, which has now gone to the Congress, hastened the Congress into holding seat sharing talks with SP.
A senior SP chief instructed ThePrint on situation of anonymity that the third checklist containing the identify of the candidate for Varanasi constituency — Surendra Singh Patel — was social gathering chief Akhilesh Yadav’s sign to the Congress that the SP was prepared to enter polls with out an alliance.
“Akhileshji had denied joining the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Chandauli, and with the third list, he signalled that we don’t need the Congress. However, Rahul Gandhiji’s office intervened and ensured that the alliance goes through. The arrangement was finalised in hours and an agreement was arrived at,” mentioned the chief.
Whereas SP nationwide basic secretary Ram Gopal Yadav led the talks from SP’s aspect, former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot represented the Congress. The talks — held only a day after the discharge of SP’s third checklist — went by a number of rounds earlier than each events arrived at a consensus over seat sharing.
Shashikant Pandey, head of division of political science, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar college, instructed ThePrint that whereas the Congress shouldn’t be actually able to switch its votes to the SP as a consequence of its weak organisational power, the most important profit that the SP will get from the association is that the Congress is not going to play spoilsport for SP candidates in Muslim-dominated seats.
He additional mentioned that in a triangular contest, absence of a Congress candidate will assist the SP.
“Congress’ vote base in UP has dwindled but it still has traditional voters in some pockets where it is in a position to single-handedly win 5,000-10,000 votes. Congress got seats where it has done well in previous Lok Sabha polls, like Jhansi, Kanpur, Maharajganj, etc. Brahmins and a section of upper caste voters of UP have traditionally voted for Congress but now the BJP has made deep inroads among them,” mentioned Pandey.
“This may help the SP gain a bit from a small section of such voters. Moreover, in case of a triangular contest in Muslim pockets, absence of a Congress candidate would help the SP gain. However, overall, the Congress does not have a major support base that can be transferred to SP,” he added.
The Congress has additionally been given Jat-dominated seats like Mathura and Fatehpur Sikri the place the SP’s prospects had been slim, he famous.
“So, although the number of seats that the Congress is getting as part of the alliance is good, it cannot be said that this will convert to victory for Congress candidates there,” mentioned Pandey.
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Benefit to SP
Political consultants level out that the alliance has come as a face-saver for the SP within the backdrop of Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) exiting the INDIA alliance, and leaders like Pallavi Patel and Swami Prasad Maurya selecting to take a unique line from the SP.
“With Jayant leaving the INDIA alliance, Swami Prasad Maurya announcing his own outfit and Pallavi Patel’s Apna Dal (K) taking a different line, the momentum in UP was against the SP. However, the alliance has come as a face saver,” Shashikant Pandey mentioned.
Whereas RLD has hinted that it is going to be becoming a member of the BJP-led Nationwide Democratic Alliance (NDA) submit announcement of the Bharat Ratna being conferred to Jayant’s grandfather and former PM Chaudhary Charan Singh, Patel has mentioned that she’s going to abstain from voting within the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls — a transfer set to hurt the SP.
He added that bagging a seat in MP, the place the SP doesn’t have any main base, is one other benefit for the social gathering.
“Congress has a strong presence in MP and is in a direct contest with the BJP there. If SP has managed to bargain one seat for them in MP, that candidate in Khajuraho will definitely be in direct fight with the BJP,” he mentioned.
Within the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the SP-BSP-RLD alliance, which was anticipated to place up a stiff battle towards the BJP, received solely 15 seats whereas the BJP, together with its ally Apna Dal (Sonelal), had received 64 seats again then.
That yr, Sonia Gandhi’s Raebareli was the one seat the Congress received in that state.
The SP and Congress had come collectively for the UP-assembly polls in 2017 however the coalition was dealt a crushing blow by the BJP which received 324 seats within the 403-seat meeting whereas the SP-Congress may solely handle to win solely 57 seats.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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