Cong to contest solo in UP
New Delhi: With both the regional satraps --- Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party --- making it official to join hands for the general elections in Uttar Pradesh, the ongoing suspense over partners of Grand Alliance (mahagathbandhan) in the state has come to an end.
The Congress has also made it clear that the party is ready to go alone in 2019. The formal announcement in this regard would be made on Saturday.
The third partner of the Grand Alliance would be Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which is led by Ajit Singh and the fourth partner would be Nishad Party. However, the seat sharing between all the three partners has not yet been finalised. According to sources, the Grand Alliance may give a walkover to Congress on about nine seats.
The party insiders also maintained that Congress didn't pursue much to be a partner of the alliance as the party's confidence to go solo in 2019 comes from the 2009 general elections experience, where Congress single-handedly managed to get 21 seats in the state and the party leaders are confident of winning respectable number of seats in the politically important state.
Making it official, senior state Congress leader Rajiv Bakshi said that the party is ready to go it alone in UP in the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress already has 45 seats in the Lok Sabha, more than any other regional player, said the party's media coordinator.
His comments came as the SP and the BSP announced that their leaders, Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati, would jointly address a press conference on Saturday, signalling a 'gathbandhan' excluding the Congress.
"We are a political party and are ready to fight the coming elections alone in Uttar Pradesh," Bakshi told reporters.
"We alone have 45 seats in the Lok Sabha and it is any day many more than the regional players... a 'mahagathbandhan' in the Lok Sabha elections need to be built
around the party having a national face," Bakshi said, adding, "We are ready to take along like-minded parties and they can come together with us."
Sources in the Congress said that its party president Rahul Gandhi would soon meet UPCC president Raj Babbar and AICC in-
charge of party affairs in the state Ghulam Nabi Azad to deliberate on the matter.
Meanwhile, RLD chief Ajit Singh has promised to slew of attractive measures for farmers if mahagathbandhan comes to power. "Not only loan of the farmers would be waived, but some other drastic steps would also be taken to improve the economic condition of the farmers," Singh said.
He further said that Rs 5,000 per acre should be transferred to the bank account of farmers prior to sowing and said the difference of market rate and the minimum support price should also be paid in a similar manner when the yield comes to market.
