New Delhi : Upbeat over INDIA bloc having an advantage in five out eight phase 1 seats in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress and the Samajwadi Party will hold coordination meetings in the remaining western parts of the state to mobilize support over the next few days.
AICC general secretary in charge of UP Avinash Pande along with senior leaders of the Congress and the SP will hold coordination meetings in seats like Mathura, Agra, Firozabad and Mainpuri on April 22, Aligarh, Kasganj, Farrukhabad and Shahjahanpur on April 23 and Badaun and Bareilly on April 24.
The move comes after the joint rally addressed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in favour of Congress nominee in Amroha on April 20. Polling will be held there on April 26 in phase 2.
“We will conduct the coordination meetings in the western UP areas over the next three days. Similar meetings helped us in phase 1 and we hope to keep the momentum over the next phases,” Avinash Pande told ETV Bharat.
“The Amroha rally was very successful,” he said.
The first test for the opposition bloc coordination was in the eight phase 1 seats Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Pilibhit, Moradabad, Rampur, Saharanpur, Bijnor and Nagina, where polling took place on April 19.
Out of the eight, the INDIA bloc has an advantage in five seats while there is a close fight in the remaining three seats, said party insiders, adding that the anger among the Rajputs was hurting the BJP’s prospects besides issues like joblessness, price rise and pending dues of sugarcane farmers.
Out of the eight, the Congress contested only Saharanpur where party nominee Imran Masood is hopeful of a win. Masood has now been included in the list of star campaigners and will seek votes in support of party candidates in western UP areas.
“The combination of various factors has cost the BJP. The INDIA alliance has done well. We are confident on at least four seats Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Kairana and Nagina,” senior Congress leader Vivek Bansal told ETV Bharat.
Bansal is a star campaigner along with Masood.
“The coordination meetings have helped us mobilize the voters. They need to be reminded why the opposition alliance is better for them and what it will do for their benefit. Like Amorha, there may be joint rallies of top leaders in the coming phases,” said Bansal.
In the coming phases, Mukesh Dhangar of the Congress is giving a tough fight to BJP’s candidate and sitting MP Hema Malini in Mathura seat. In Mainpuri, SP nominee Dimple Yadav, wife of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is pitted against BJP’s Jaiveer Singh and BSP’s Gulshan Dev Shakya. Mainpuri, which has over 4 lakh Yadav voters, is considered to be the stronghold of SP founder and former chief minister late Mulayam Singh Yadav, Dimple’s father-in-law.
The SP is investing huge resources in Mainpuri which has become a prestige seat for the opposition party. There is a triangular fight in Agra, where Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav had held a joint roadshow during the Bharat Nyay Yatra. SP’s Suresh Chandra Kardam is pitted against SP Singh Baghel of BJP and Puja Amrohi of BSP in Agra.
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