Samajwadi Party (SP), a Uttar Pradesh centric party’s assertion to contest assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, annoyed the Uttar Pradesh Congress leaders bringing the fault lines in the State to the fore.
Speaking with The Hindu Anil Yadav, U.P. Congress organisational Secretary said the grand-old-party is also preparing on all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in U.P., adding it is the collective responsibility of all Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) block partners to show maturity in view of the enormous challenge the opposition faces in U.P., and entire Hindi belt with ‘narrow considerations’ not harm the larger motive of unseating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from the Centre.
“Where is the organisational structure of the SP in these three-poll bound Hindi belt States — M.P., Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan — apart from a small area adjoining U.P. We believe it is the collective responsibility of all (INDIA block) parties to help each other and come out of ‘narrow considerations’, in a bid to defeat the BJP,” he said.
On asked the SP decision to fight the polls in neighboring States which is seen as pressure tactics to get seats from the Congress party in these polls bound States before 2024 polls and also aimed at lowering the stakes of the grand-old-party during seat negotiations in U.P. for Lok Sabha polls, Mr. Yadav added, “Yes, these are pressure tactics, but it is our central leadership which will take a call, on seat adjustments, they (central leadership) are mature enough to understand everything, we are preparing on all 80 Lok Sabha seats in U.P.,”.
The rumbling in the INDIA block within U.P. continued since the Ghosi bypoll which witnessed a byelection along with the neighbouring State of Uttarakhand, Bageshwar Vidhan Sabha seat where the BJP’s candidate Parwati Das defeated the grand-old-party Basant Kumar by 2,405 votes. In the by-election the SP also fielded Bhagwati Prasad who garnered 637 votes. Since, the result Congress is attacking the SP for not following the coalition dharma with U.P. Congress chief Ajay Rai going as far as saying the SP should not be under the illusion that it has won Ghosi on its own, adding the Congress is preparing on all the 80 parliamentary seats in U.P.
SP rebuttal
SP, the principal Opposition party in the State reacted over the grand-old-party’s calls for reciprocity, describing statements of State Congress leaders remains ‘insignificant’ when decision of alliance happened at the level of national leadership, asking will the Congress not fight the 2027 assembly polls in U.P., since the SP is the main player in State’s politics and had successfully transformed the state into a bi-polar electoral polity.
“Every party has a right to grow, we have to become a national party, in M.P., we won elections in the past on multiple occasions, the alliance with Congress is for 2024, to except we will abstain from electoral contest is a naive idea, it is for all parties to understand and accept the track record of SP. Would the Congress not contest the 2027 polls in U.P., since they are not a player in the State validated by past Vidhan Sabha poll,” said Sunil Singh Yadav ‘Sajan’, the SP national spokesperson. The SP had won seven seats in the 2003 Madhya Pradesh assembly polls.
Analysts seeing the developments argue the emerging fault lines may broaden further as SP would like to bargain big with INDIA block, primarily Congress, in view of U.P.’s centrality in India’s political landscape with an aim to increase its footprint across the cow belt. “We must remember Akhilesh gave a slogan ‘Assi Harao, BJP Hatao’, SP’s stand vis-a-vis Congress evident from Uttrakhand bypoll, over M.P. and other two States signify, the SP trying to extract much from the grand-old-party on seat negotiations, it will be not an easy distribution in U.P.,” said Satish Jha, a political scientist teaching in University of Delhi.
