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Congress won’t contest bypolls, to focus on urban local bodies elections in Uttar Pradesh
Asked whether the Congress was exploring options for an alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Brijlal Khabri said the party leadership would take a call on the issue, if needed.
The Congress has decided not to contest the by-elections to Mainpuri Lok Sabha and Rampur Sadar and Khatauli (Muzaffarnagar) assembly seats as the party wants to focus on forthcoming elections to urban local bodies in Uttar Pradesh, the party’s state chief Brijlal Khabri said on Wednesday.
“We don’t have time to contest the by-elections. We have other (urban local bodies) elections ahead. Our whole team will be busy in the by-election(s) if we decide to contest. We have other works to do,” Khabri said at his first press conference as the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president here.
“We all know the style of functioning of the BJP government and we suffered a lot in the panchayat elections. Under all circumstances, they (BJP) want to turn the situation in their favour. We are ready to fight. We are getting ready for elections to urban local bodies. These by-elections could have been held later. But the by-elections are being held to affect the elections to urban local bodies,” he said.
The by-elections to Mainpuri Lok Sabha and Rampur Sadar and Khatauli assembly seats are scheduled for December 5. The Mainpuri by-election has been necessitated by the death of Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav on October 10.
The disqualification and SP MLA Mohammad Azam Khan and BJP MLA Vikram Saini have caused by-election to Rampur and Khatauli assembly seats respectively. (The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Election Commission not to issue till November 10 the notification for the assembly bypoll in Rampur Sadar, which fell vacant following the disqualification of Samajwadi Party MLA Azam Khan after his conviction in a 2019 hate speech case).
Asked whether the Congress was exploring options for an alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Brijlal Khabri said the party leadership would take a call on the issue, if needed.
“We are preparing for the polls. We are getting ready at the grassroots levels. We will give surprising results,” he said.
Khabri said the BJP, the SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) were hand in glove with one another.
This was the main reason that the SP and the BSP were not raising any issues of public concern in the state, he alleged.
Stating that the number of dengue cases was increasing, Khabri targeted the state government for “poor health services”.
He said the state government had also failed to improve the situation on the crime front.
The state government had recommended a CBI probe into Ayush admissions as it did not trust its own investigating agencies, the state Congress chief claimed.
He also raised the issue of corruption in Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj University, Kanpur.
