By Tajdar H. Zaidi
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Congress unit has staked a claim for 5 of the 10 Assembly seats left vacant in the State after the Lok Sabha election.
Of the 10 vacant seats, 5 were held by the BJP-led NDA and the rest were with the Samajwadi Party (SP), an INDIA bloc ally of the Congress. After a meeting with party leaders and workers, Congress State President Ajay Rai said the party will support SP in five seats and is strong and ready to fight in the rest.
“We held a meeting with party leaders and workers from seats held by the NDA. We will support our INDIA bloc partner Samajwadi Party in five seats. In the rest seats, we are strong and ready to fight. The final decision on seats will be taken by the national leadership, but our claim is on the five remaining seats,” Rai said.
The Assembly seats vacated by the SP are Millipore, Kundarki, Katehari, Karhal, and Sisamau. Katehari’s seat was vacated by Lalji Verma who got elected to Lok Sabha from Ambedkar Nagar Lok Sabha seat. Likewise, the SP president Akhilesh Yadav resigned from the Karhal Assembly seat after winning from Kannauj parliamentary seat. Sisamau was left vacant after sitting MLA Irfan Solanki was disqualified following a conviction in a criminal case.
The NDA vacated Phulpur, Majhawan, Khair, Merrapur, and Ghaziabad Assembly seats after their MLAs got elected to the Lok Sabha.
The SP, the principal Opposition party in the State has agreed that an alliance will take place but remained non-committal on the number of seats. The party said it will respect Congress during seat-sharing in the State, but expected a ‘return of favor’ in States like Maharashtra, Haryana, and Jharkhand going to polls later this year.
“Under our leader Akhilesh Yadav, we aim at becoming a national party; our party is the third largest political force in Lok Sabha. We expect that the way we are ready to give respect to our alliance partner in bypolls, they will do the same in Maharashtra and Haryana,” said SP spokesperson Sunil Singh Yadav ‘Sajan’.
“The bypolls and State polls are not linked and seat sharing will be decided by the leadership in due course,” the spokesperson added.
