Congress getting ready with plan B for U.P. bypolls

The Congress is getting ready with plan B for the by-elections to be held for 10 UP legislative assembly seats even as it claimed that talks for seat sharing with the Samajwadi Party are in progress.

Those aware of the development said the issue of preparations to be made for the by-elections came up for discussion at a high-level meeting held in New Delhi on Thursday.

At this meeting that All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary (incharge UP) Avinash Pandey chaired, the party leaders felt that the party should have a plan B ready with a list of possible candidates for all the 10 by-poll seats.

“The Congress and Samajwadi Party are holding talks for seat sharing. There is, however, no clarity about the number of seats the grand old party may eventually get to contest in the by-polls. Both the parties are partners of INDIA bloc in Uttar Pradesh and have given indications to fight the by-poll in alliance with each other,” said a senior Congress functionary.

This was the first meeting held to discuss the seat sharing issue after the Congress’ recent move to send six AICC secretaries Dheeraj Gurjar, Rajesh Tiwari, Tauquir Alam, Pradeep Narwal, Nilanshu Chaturvedi and Satyanarayan Patel to the by-poll seats and get feedback about the political situation and possible candidates there.

The Congress’ move comes amid reports that the grand old party and SP may not have any seat sharing in Haryana. “We don’t think there is going to be any fallout of Haryana in Uttar Pradesh. The Congress and the SP continue to be INDIA bloc partners in Uttar Pradesh. The poll understanding between the two parties continues in Uttar Pradesh,” said another party functionary.

Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Rai, who was also present at the Thursday’s meeting, did not make any comments on the issue. He said the Congress has staked claim to contest five out of 10 by-poll seats and seat sharing talks are still in progress.