Ahead Of UP Bypolls, Akhilesh Posts Pic With Rahul: 'Will Save Constitution, Reservation, Harmony'

A day after facing flak over its defeat in the Haryana elections - a loss partly attributed to not sharing seats with its state allies - Congress has decided not to contest any of the nine Uttar Pradesh Assembly bypolls scheduled for next month.

The party had initially requested to contest at least five seats, including Milkipur in Ayodhya district, which it hasnt won since 1989.

Instead, the Samajwadi Party (SP), a member of the Congress-led INDIA bloc, will field candidates for all nine seats, with each candidate standing against the ruling BJP as INDIA bloc nominees.

We have decided to save the Constitution.

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reservation.

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and harmony.

We have decided to build the country as envisioned by Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) - Babasaheb (Ambedkar) - Lohia (Ram Manohar, an iconic freedom fighter and socialist leader), Akhilesh Yadav posted on X.

In his Hindi post, the former UP Chief Minister also shared a photograph of himself standing alongside Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, their hands clasped and raised in victory.

Yadav said that the alliance was not based on seat-sharing calculations but on the necessity of cutting into BJPs lead in the UP Assembly.

With this unprecedented cooperation, every worker of the INDIA bloc is filled with new energy and the resolve to win all nine Assembly seats, he said.

SP-Congress AgreementNews of this Congress-SP alliance followed a prolonged disagreement between the two parties, as the Congress was reportedly pushing to contest at least five seats, while the SP was hesitant to concede more than two, given Congress poor performance in recent Assembly and general elections in the state.

In the 2022 Assembly elections, the BJP won 255 seats, while the Samajwadi Party secured 111.

The Congress only managed to win two seats - Rampur Khas and Pharenda.

The SP also won in the April-June general election in the state, taking 37 of the 80 seats, with the BJP winning 33 and the Congress reclaiming six, including their traditional stronghold of Amethi from Smriti Irani.

The Congress position was further weakened after the Haryana and Jammu Kashmir election results, where the party faced criticism from its INDIA bloc partners for failing to cooperate with the SP in Haryana.

A day after the election results, the SP announced candidates for six of the nine seats, effectively denying the Congress its request for five.

Congress Strategy in Maharashtra?According to sources, standing down in Uttar Pradesh was not what the Congress wanted, but the backlash after the Haryana defeat left the party with limited options.

There are suggestions that by conceding in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress could be positioning itself strategically to resist the Samajwadi Partys demand for 12 seats in the upcoming Maharashtra elections.

The Congress, reluctant to oblige the SP in Maharashtra, believes that allowing the SP to dominate in Uttar Pradesh could strengthen its argument against conceding seats in Maharashtra, particularly since the Congress performed well there in the general elections, winning 13 seats to become the largest single party.

In Maharashtra, the Congress has now reached a seat-sharing agreement with the Shiv Sena and NCP factions led by Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar.

Each party will contest 85 seats.

The remaining 33 seats will be allocated to smaller parties, with the SP expected to be among them.

Symbol Not Important: CongressSurendra Rajput, a senior Congress leader, told ANI that the decision to step aside in Uttar Pradesh was driven by the need to defeat the BJP.

INDIA is contesting all nine seats.

For us, the symbol is not important.

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for us, ending the BJPs misgovernance is important.

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he said.

He also referenced Akhilesh Yadavs big-heartedness in Haryana - a nod to the SP leader not, at least publicly, pressing for a seat-sharing deal in that election.

Yadav rounded off the joint appeal by saying that his partys strength had increased manifold with the support of the Congress top leadership and booth-level workers.

BJPs ResponseRakesh Tripathi, a spokesperson for the BJPs state unit, claimed that the Samajwadi Party was exacting revenge for the Haryana and Madhya Pradesh elections, where the Congress ignored its allys requests for seat-sharing; the Congress was soundly defeated by the BJP in both states.

Tripathi also used a wrestling analogy, saying the Congress had been thrown and pinned to the mat.

He further claimed that the INDIA alliance has been broken into pieces and that the SP is making the BJPs Congress-mukt Bharat (Congress-free India) slogan a reality.

Uttar Pradesh By-election DatesVoting for the nine by-elections will take place on 13 November, with the results announced on 23 November.

A by-election for a tenth seat - Milkipur in Ayodhya district - will be held at a later date.

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