CoNGReSS SiLeNT oN ALLiANCe, PARTY STRATeGY exPeCTeD ToDAY

NEW DELHI — Left out of the SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress is likely to contest the Lok Sabha polls on its own in the crucial Hindi heartland state, sources said. The Congress leadership maintained a stoic silence and refused to comment on being left out of the alliance.

Asked to comment on the tie-up announced by BSP chief Mayawati and SP leader Akhilesh Yadav, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Ghulam Nabi Azad said the party would not react immediately and would come out with a detailed reaction in Lucknow on Sunday.

Madhya Pradesh chief minister and Congress leader Kamal Nath said there was a need for alliances in the entire country to defeat the BJP. He also said the saffron party got only 31 per cent votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and claimed that it had the people’s mandate, adding that even this happened because votes were split.

However, party insiders felt that the SP-BSP tie-up was a blow to the Congress’s efforts to unite all the opposition parties.

Others saw a silver lining in this, saying the party might win more seats if it went it alone in Uttar Pradesh. They said this would also see further strengthening of the party at the grassroots level and would give a moral boost to its workers in the state.

One of the Congress leaders admitted that the party now had no choice but go it alone in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha polls.

Opposition leaders like Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) Tejashwi Yadav welcomed the SP-BSP tie-up, saying the two parties would be able to defeat the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming polls in Uttar Pradesh. —