A day after the Congress faced a surprising defeat in the Haryana assembly elections, another challenge emerged from its INDIA bloc partner, the Samajwadi Party (SP). On Wednesday, SP, led by Akhilesh Yadav, declared its candidates for six out of ten bypoll-bound assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, including constituencies that the Congress had hoped to contest, igniting a fresh seat-sharing dispute between the allies.
Among the prominent candidates named by the SP is Akhilesh Yadav’s cousin, Tej Pratap Yadav, who will be contesting from Karhal. Initially set to contest the Kannauj parliamentary seat for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Tej Pratap’s nomination was changed at the request of the local party unit. Other candidates fielded by the SP include Naseem Siddiqui from Sisamau, Ajeet Prasad from Milkipur, Shobhawati Verma from Katehri, Mustafa Siddiqui from Phulpur, and Jyoti Bind from Majhwa.
This move by the SP sparked controversy as some of the seats, such as Majhwa and Phulpur, were among those that the Congress had intended to contest. Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai expressed his frustration, stating that the state Congress unit had submitted a proposal to contest five seats, including Majhwa, Phulpur, Ghaziabad, Khair, and Meerapur. These are constituencies where the BJP had secured victories in the previous elections.
Rai said, “We have given a proposal to contest on five assembly seats – Majhwa (Mirzapur), Phulpur (Allahabad), Ghaziabad, Khair (Aligarh), and Meerapur (Muzaffarnagar). These are seats where BJP candidates won.”
The announcement comes amid ongoing discussions between the SP and Congress over seat-sharing. The ruling BJP was quick to comment on the dispute, with UP BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi attributing the tension to the Congress’s poor performance in the Haryana elections, where the BJP won 48 out of 90 seats.
Tripathi added, “It’s the Haryana election effect. The Congress did not share any seats with the SP in Haryana, leading to the BJP’s third consecutive victory in the state.”
The SP, however, maintained that the decision to announce candidates was made in line with their partnership with Congress, with an aim to defeat the BJP. SP spokesperson Fakrul Hasan stated, “The party has announced the names of the candidates keeping in mind the ‘gathbandhan dharma’ and to defeat the BJP.”
Senior SP leader Rajendra Chaudhary indicated that the final decision on seat-sharing would be taken by the party chief, as several vacant seats, including Karhal, Khair, and Ghaziabad, head for bypolls.
