Cong readies to go alone in LS polls
Congress wanted to take all like-minded parties together. An alliance, however, cannot be forced on the parties that do not want to take others along
Congress leader
LUCKNOW: Within minutes of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) saying they would keep the Congress out of their alliance, the grand old party braced on Saturday to go it alone in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh.
A meeting of senior party leaders, office bearers and district and city unit chiefs will take place here on Sunday to give the final shape to the Congress’s poll strategy in India’s most populous state, which elects 80 members of the Lower House. Congress president Rahul Gandhi is set to tour Uttar Pradesh in the next few weeks. “The Congress president’s state tour will begin later this month. We are requesting him to begin from Lucknow and cover the entire state by next month. We discussed this with leaders of west UP on Friday and others have been called to Lucknow on Sunday,” said a senior party leader requesting anonymity. Congress general secretary in charge of UP Ghulam Nabi Azad will voice the party’s views on the alliance and details of Gandhi’s proposed tour soon.
“We knew this was coming,” the senior leader cited above said about the SP-BSP alliance. “This is an opportunity to realise our true potential and may prove a blessing in disguise for us. The SP and BSP have underestimated the Congress. We may have won only two seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, but the party’s candidates did considerably well on many other seats.
Moreover, we won 21 Lok Sabha seats in the 2009 polls on our own and this number reached 22 after the party won a by-poll. As 2019 Lok Sabha election will be a fight between the Congress and BJP, we will show our strength and win more seats than any party or alliance.”.
Taking the cue from Gandhi’s recent statement hinting that the Congress was ready to go it alone in the 2019 elections, senior party leaders had begun finalising the programme for his tour across Uttar Pradesh, from where the party won just two Lok Sabha seats out of 80 in 2014.
“Congress wanted to take all like-minded parties together. An alliance, however, cannot be forced on the parties that do not want to take others along. The BJP has failed to keep its promises... This election will be fought on national issues. The SP and the BSP are only regional parties. So, the Congress will remain in the forefront of the fight against the BJP,” said another party leader.
“The Congress’s victory in elections to three state assemblies of the Hindi belt (Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan) will have its impact on Uttar Pradesh too. The Congress president is in focus and under his leadership the party will win more seats than any other party or alliance,” he said.
The SP and BSP said they would contest 78 seats in Uttar Pradesh, leaving two seats for the Congress — presumably Amethi and Raebareli, the parliamentary bastions of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi — and two to other allies. The Congress may reciprocate the gesture by not fighting for the seats that SP leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav, and BSP chief Mayawati may contest, if they are in the electoral race.
“Yes, the Congress may consider leaving seats for them. The Congress leadership will, however, take a final call on the issue soon,” said another party leader, also on condition of anonymity.