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Will not field candidates for UP bypolls: Congress
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in Delhi, AICC general secretary in-charge of the state Avinash Pande said party workers and leaders would unconditionally work to ensure the victory of Samajwadi Party candidates or that of other INDIA bloc parties.
The Congress on Thursday announced it would not field candidates in the nine assembly bypolls in Uttar Pradesh next month and would support the nominees of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), including the Samajwadi Party (SP).
The announcement came amid reports that the two allies failed to formulate a seat-sharing arrangement, after the Congress sought to contest on five seats but the SP was willing to offer only two after taking into consideration the former’s poll debacle in the Haryana assembly polls, people aware of the details said. The SP had already declared the candidates for six seats on October 9 and declared two more on Thursday, following the Congress’s decision to not enter the poll fray.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in Delhi, AICC general secretary in-charge of the state Avinash Pande said party workers and leaders would unconditionally work to ensure the victory of Samajwadi Party candidates or that of other INDIA bloc parties.
“The manner in which political and social tensions are rising in UP and in the country and keeping in mind the objectives with which the INDIA bloc was created, on that basis, the question is not about strengthening organisation or forwarding party interests but to save the Constitution and to strengthen mutual harmony,” Pande said.
Keeping this in mind, on the suggestions of UP Congress leaders, the party has decided not to field its candidates but strongly work for the victory of the INDIA bloc nominees, he added. “We have to ensure the defeat of the BJP nominees so that it has a positive impact on the assembly polls in 2027,” he said.
Pande said the decision was arrived at after consultations involving state Congress chief Ajay Rai, Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Misra, AICC general secretary organisation K C Venugopal, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, alongwith the SP leadership.
Both the parties had contested the Lok Sabha elections in an alliance, with the SP winning 37 of the 80 seats it contested and the Congress managing six of the 17 seats it fought.
The people cited above said that with eyes on the 2027 assembly polls, the Congress was eager for the upcoming bypolls to test its strategies. Rai even proposed that the Congress contest five of the nine seats. However, the Haryana assembly election results prompted the SP to offer it two – Ghaziabad and Khair – and assert claims on six seats, including two that the Congress was eyeing.
The Congress earlier alleged the SP did not follow “alliance dharma” and unilaterally announced candidates for some of the seats.
The SP welcomed the Congress’s decision to not contest the polls. “We welcome the decision as it is the need of the hour that the INDIA bloc be strengthened and BJP should be defeated at any cost. I am sure we are going to win all the nine assembly seats,” party spokesperson Fakhrul Hasan Chand said.
On Wednesday, SP chief Akhilesh Yadab said the INDIA bloc candidates will contest all the seats on his party’s election symbol “cycle”. Pande, however, clarified that the candidate and symbol both would be of the SP or any other INDIA bloc ally, and not of the Congress.
The nine assembly seats going to polls on November 13 are Katehari, Karhal, Mirapur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, Sisamau, Khair, Phulpur and Kundarki. The results will be announced on November 23.
