The Congress in Uttar Pradesh is reacting sharply to reports of an alliance between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party after the reported meeting between political strategist Prashant Kishore and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav in Delhi on Tuesday evening.
The sitting Congress MLAs feel that an alliance with the SP will work to the Congress’ advantage, but party leaders feel that any such move will cripple the organisation once again.
UPCC president Raj Babbar said, “I am not aware of any such move. We are working on all 403 seats for the upcoming assembly elections.”
UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav also said he was not aware of any such move or meeting.
A senior Congress MLA from Bundelkhand, however, said that an alliance would work to the party’s advantage. “Muslims will vote for us en bloc if we ally with the SP”, he said.
Party leaders in the organisation feel that any alliance with the SP will be ‘suicidal’ for the party.
“With great difficulty, the party organisation has been energised in the state and alliance will only push us back. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has spent one month travelling across UP and UPCC president Raj Babbar and Sheila Dikshit have also travelled for at least two months. All the efforts will go to waste if we join hands with the SP which is already a sinking ship”, said a senior party leader.
A party veteran said that in event of an alliance with the SP, the Congress would get not more than 50 seats.
“This means that our organisation in the remaining 350 seats will become defunct once again”, said a former UPCC president.
A section of Congress leaders are also planning to initiate a signature campaign opposing an alliance with any party.
