Oppn bloc reaches consensus for Uttar Pradesh by-polls
Lucknow: The Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP), partners in the opposition block INDIA, have reached a consensus on contesting the upcoming by-elections for 10 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh.
According to sources from the SP, the Congress will contest three seats while the SP will contest the remaining seven.
SP sources also revealed that the final decision will be made by Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi after the budget session of the Lok Sabha, which runs from July 22 to August 12.
In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the SP-Congress alliance made significant gains in Uttar Pradesh, securing 43 seats collectively and reducing the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to 36 seats. Buoyed by this success, the INDIA alliance partners are now strategising their seat-sharing arrangement for the by-elections in the 10 Assembly segments scheduled later this year.
Congress sources confirmed that the SP would contest seven seats while the Congress would likely get three. Of the 10 Assembly seats set to go to the polls, five were previously held by the SP, three by the BJP, and one each by BJP allies Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and the NISHAD party. Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) chief Ajai Rai has confirmed that high-level discussions regarding seat-sharing are ongoing, with both parties determined to present a united front in the by-elections.
While the exact distribution of seats between the SP and Congress remains undecided, senior Congress leaders have indicated that the party will likely seek seats previously held by the BJP and its allies.
The Election Commission of India is expected to conduct the by-elections alongside the Assembly elections in Haryana, Jharkhand, and Maharashtra later this year.
The five seats previously held by the SP include Katehari (Ambedkar Nagar), Karhal (Mainpuri), Milkipur (Ayodhya), Kundarki (Moradabad), and Sisamau (Kanpur). The Sisamau seat was declared vacant following the disqualification of sitting SP MLA Irfan Solanki after his conviction in a criminal case. The Katehari Assembly seat was vacated by SP MLA Lalji Verma, who won the Ambedkar Nagar Lok Sabha seat, and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav resigned from the Karhal Assembly seat after his election to the Lok Sabha from the Kannauj constituency.
