by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Rahul calls urgent meeting on UP
Congress may Contest 20-22 LS seats
Mayawati says “Left two seats so that BJP doesn't tie-down Rahul to Amethi”
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, Jan 12
Congress president Rahul Gandhi has called an urgent meeting to take a stock of the political situation in UP where the party has been left with with only two seats by the SP-BSP leaders.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha and incharge of UP affairs and Raj Babbar, president UP unit have been will brief Rahul Gandhi after taking stock of the situation in Lucknow tomorrow.
Rahul Gandhi will be returning from Dubai where he had gone to address a massive meeting of the NRIs which is considered his best ever show on foreign soil. Before going to Dubai, Rahul Gandhi had told Gulf News that his party can do “very interesting things” in UP and had asserted that it would be a “mistake to “underestimate” his party, the SP-BSP just did the same today.
But the SP and BSP had done exactly that and declared that only two seats -Amethi and Rae Bareli – will be left for the Congress. The Congress leadership had signals to the SP-BSP leaders that it would be happy to be contented with even 8 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats. It had come second in second in five Lok Sabha seats in 2014 Lok Sabha polls and had strong presence in another 9 seats. The Congress was keen that some of its senior and your leaders who had done better in 2014 be accommodated in the alliance. However, the SP-BSP leaders stood their ground.
But Mayawati's one comment today at the press conference in Lucknow may still be music to the ears of Rahul Gandhi when she said, “We have left these two seats for Congress so that the BJP doesn't tie-down Rahul Gandhi to Amethi.”
Obviously, Mayawati has kept the doors open for the largest party of the Opposition for any post-poll understanding or even future adjustment of seats during the coming months in UP and elsewhere.
However, insiders in the Congress say that the party will field its candidates in 20 Lok Sabha seats where it has sizable presence of votes. Though UP Congress leaders want that the party should contest all 80 seats. However, Rahul Gandhi's objective in 2019 Lok Sabha polls was articulated by him in the Gulf News interview which was first in recent months where he said, “Our first aim is to defeat Mr Narendra Modi. And so there are states where we are very strong and we are the primary party in the state and in those states we are contesting the BJP directly. There are states where there are possible alliances — Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Bihar — where we are working out an alliance formula. We are an ideological party. We fight based on ideology. There are very interesting things that the Congress party can do in Uttar Pradesh that we are working on.”
He had said the Congress idea is very powerful for Uttar Pradesh. “So, we are very confident of our ability in Uttar Pradesh and I think we will surprise people.”
However, his statement did not reach the SP-BSP leadership leaving him with a choice to contest 20-22 odd seats.
Ends
