Seat-sharing with SP: Congress to contest in Ghaziabad, hopeful of repeating 2004 victory

The other seats that the Congress will contest on include Raebareli, Amethi, Kanpur, Fatehpur Sikri, Bansgaon, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Maharajganj, Varanasi, Amroha, Jhansi, Bulandshahr, Mathura, Sitapur, Barabanki and Deoria

The Congress leaders in Ghaziabad are upbeat after the party cemented its Lok Sabha poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Wednesday for the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.

Congress has a tough fight on its hands as incumbent MP general VK Singh (rtd) (above) has won the seat, which is considered a BJP bastion, twice in a row in 2014 and 2019. (ANI)

The Congress party will contest 17 seats, including Ghaziabad, which has been a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bastion for long.

The other seats that the Congress will contest on include Raebareli, Amethi, Kanpur, Fatehpur Sikri, Bansgaon, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Maharajganj, Varanasi, Amroha, Jhansi, Bulandshahr, Mathura, Sitapur, Barabanki and Deoria.

The SP and its other allies will contest the remaining 63 seats, said party brass in the know of the alliance details.

“Congress workers are upbeat as Ghaziabad is one of the important seats in western Uttar Pradesh. Our party won the seat in 2004 and this time too, we will try to repeat that performance. Along with SP, we hope that these elections will be much smoother for the Congress,” said Bijender Yadav, district president, Congress.

However, the Ghaziabad parliamentary constituency has been a BJP’s bastion for long.

Till 2008, Ghaziabad and Hapur districts were part of the same parliamentary constituency which was represented four times by BJP MP Ramesh Chandra Tomar in 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999.

In 2004, Congress’ Surendra Prakash Goel won the seat, while in 2009 Ghaziabad elected Rajnath Singh as its MP. The seat in 2014 and 2019 went to BJP’s General VK Singh (retired), who is the current incumbent MP.

General Singh in 2014 defeated his nearest Congress candidate Raj Babbar by a record margin of 567,260 votes. The ex-army chief, while contesting on a BJP ticket for the second consecutive time in 2019, defeated his nearest rival Suresh Bansal of the Samajwadi Party by a margin of 501,500 votes.

“Our party organisation has already geared up for the Lok Sabha election for more than two months now and are organising different outreach programmes involving government-scheme beneficiaries, women and other sections. We are confident that our candidate will win from Ghaziabad. We rely on our ground work and organisation,” said Sanjeev Sharma, city president, BJP.

Virendra Yadav, city president of the SP did not respond to calls.

On the other hand, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders said the party may not announce its candidates in UP.

“It is due to the arrest of our leader Sanjay Singh who was working actively in UP. At the central level, we have asked the Congress for seat sharing in different states. If that goes through, we may support the Congress in UP,” said Sachin Sharma, district president, AAP.