New Delhi: The Congress talked tough to ally Samajwadi Party (SP) after the latter unilaterally announced candidates on 6 out of 10 assembly by-polls to be held in the crucial BJP-ruled state.
According to Congress insiders, the grand old party was miffed with the ally as its unilateral decision had come months after the SP-Congress alliance had dealt a severe blow to the saffron party by winning 43 of the total 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.
The coming by-polls were seen as the first test of the INDIA bloc after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The by-polls have to be held as the local MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha and resigned from the Assembly as per rules which require the seats to be filled up within the next six months.
The two parties had sounded to each other that they will take the alliance forward and defeat the saffron party in the coming Assembly by-polls as well till the Wednesday shocker came from the SP.
The Congress managers said the SP was taunting it due to the grand old party's electoral losses in the recent Haryana Assembly elections where the Congress failed to dislodge the saffron party despite a 10-year anti-incumbency.
However, the Congress managers also said that they will not be cowed down by the pressure tactics of the allies, be it SP in Uttar Pradesh or Shiv Sena UBT in Maharashtra or AAP in Delhi, who were all taking advantage of the current political situation.
"We are preparing for all the 10 by-polls. There has been no discussion on seat sharing with the SP. That issue will be decided by the high command," All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge of UP Avinash Pande told ETV Bharat.
According to Pande, over the past few days, the Congress has been holding 'Save Constitution' conclaves on the 10 by-poll seats to prepare a ground for the grand old party as well as the opposition grouping. It had also named senior leaders including Lok Sabha MPs as in charge for each of the 10 by-poll seats. On July 21, the Congress convened a meeting of senior leaders of all 10 by-poll seats to assess the strengths and weaknesses of its organisation.
According to Congress insiders, informal discussions had been going on within the grand old party, which wanted to contest three or four seats out of 10 but a formal consultation between the INDIA bloc allies was yet to begin.
What really miffed the Congress was that it wanted to contest many of the six by-poll seats announced by the SP including Sisamau, Phulpur and Milkipur seats.
Congress insiders said the SP was miffed as it had asked for a few seats in Haryana but the grand old party decided to go solo. Also, the SP was putting pressure on the Congress to give it four seats in Maharashtra where Assembly elections are likely to be held in November.
Earlier, the Congress had offered five out of 90 seats to AAP in Haryana but the Arvind Kejriwal-led party decided to contest on all seats. Kejriwal, who slammed the Congress for bringing BJP back in Haryana, failed to win even a single seat. Kejriwal also ruled out an alliance with the grand old party for the 2025 Delhi Assembly polls. As part of the INDIA bloc, AAP had contested four and Congress three out of the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.
