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‘Experimental’ Congress presses refresh button in U.P, worries allies
The seat-sharing spat appeared to have prompted the Congress to intensify its outreach, further widening the gulf with the SP. Both parties are key INDIA alliance partners in Uttar Pradesh.
With the Congress’s many experiments in Uttar Pradesh failing to bear fruit in the recent past, it remains to be seen whether the party’s new bid to reinvent itself and win backs its space in the most populous state after nearly 34 years with outreach programmes that eye the support base of its allies pays political dividends in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress’s survival strategy to woo other backward classes (OBCs), Dalits and Muslims went on to cause unease among other opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh and a verbal duel was witnessed between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party over the distribution of seats in the neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, which goes to polls on November 17.
The seat-sharing spat appeared to have prompted the Congress to intensify its outreach, further widening the gulf with the SP. Both parties are key INDIA alliance partners in Uttar Pradesh.
Though the Samajwadi Party has indicated that the party is willing to leave 15 Lok Sabha seats to its allies, the Congress is getting ready to contest all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in U.P.
“Yes, we are making our preparations. The Congress leadership will take a call on the issue of seat adjustment,” said Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Rai.
In this context, the Congress moves are being considered an attempt to increase its bargaining power though the party does not admit that is the case.
“This is not a question of increasing our bargaining power. We are undertaking our party activities. There is no question of any differences among the partners of INDIA. It remains strong. The Congress leadership will decide the seat-sharing issue,” said Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhna Mishra ‘Mona’.
Besides holding conventions of backward classes at the district, the division and the state levels, the Congress has focused on the demand for caste census.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi included this as one of his party’s main demands. He has been raising the demand while campaigning in the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan as well.
At a programme in Chhattisgarh, he recently said the caste census is like the “x-ray of India” as this would help in understanding the country’s demographic composition and working out an inclusive development strategy.
The Congress’ minority department too has been holding programmes to reach out to the Muslims. Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai and other party leaders went to three different jails last month to play the Muslim card to meet SP leader Mohammad Azam Khan and his family members.
This was yet another attempt to make a dent in the Samajwadi Party’s support bases among Muslims after consistent efforts to woo the backward classes.
“I am only doing my job,” Rai said after a Dalit Gaurav Samvad programme in Kanpur on Wednesday
The Congress had launched the Dalit Gaurav Samvad on the death anniversary of Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshi Ram on October 9 to win back the Dalits. The Congress proposes to continue with the Dalit Gaurav Samvad that was initially scheduled to end on the Constitution Day, November 26.
“All the political parties reach out to different communities. We are raising the issues concerning the backwards, the Dalits and the minorities. The caste census is an issue that has support of all the INDIA partners. The new alliance will have a common minimum programme that will bind its partners together. So, there does not appear any threat to the alliance,” said UPCC organisation secretary Anil Yadav.
“We have nothing to say (about) what the Congress is doing. But the Samajwadi Party is working on a strategy to defeat the BJP on all the 80 Lok Sabha seats,” said senior Samajwadi Party leader and spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary.
Though BSP chief Mayawati has not directly reacted to the Congress programmes, she has intensified attacks on the grand old party in her recent election campaigns.
Political observers feel 2024 Lok Sabha elections are going to be a do or die battle for the Congress and so the party is making all-out attempts to strengthen its base.
“The Congress faces issue of survival in 2024 Lok Sabha elections. It has no other option but to strengthen its support base and go for an alliance with the Samajwadi Party. The opposition parties may have joined hands to form INDIA, but the new alliance will be a divided house once the issue of seat-sharing comes to the fore. The duel between the Congress and the SP over seat adjustment in Madhya Pradesh may be part of pressure tactics. But this is ultimately harming the cause of INDIA,” said Professor SK Dwivedi, former head of department, political science, Lucknow University.
