The Congress faced an unforeseen defeat in the Haryana assembly elections, only to be met with another shock from their coalition partner Samajwadi Party in INDIA bloc the following day. The political party led by Akhilesh Yadav announced candidates for six out of 10 assembly seats going for bypolls on Wednesday, one of which is being targeted by the Congress.
One of the prominent names in SP’s discussions is Tej Pratap Yadav, who is the cousin of Akhilesh Yadav and has been nominated to contest from Karhal. Prior to declaring his candidacy, he was selected by the party to run as a candidate for the Kannauj parliamentary seat in the Lok Sabha elections. However, the party leader replaced him at the request of the local unit.
Apart from Tej Pratap running for the position in Karhal, the SP also nominated Naseem Siddiqui for Sisamau; Ajeet Prasad for Milkipur in Ayodhya (son of Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad); Shobhawati Verma for Katehri (wife of Ambedkar Nagar MP Lalji Verma); Mustafa Siddiqui for Phulpur; and Jyoti Bind for Majhwa. This declaration caused a new debate because the assembly seats, where candidates were announced, also included ones that the Congress planned to compete for. Ajay Rai, the Uttar Pradesh Congress leader, mentioned that the state division had submitted a suggestion to its hierarchy to compete for five seats out of the 10 available.
We have presented a proposal to our leaders to compete for five assembly seats in Majhwa (Mirzapur), Phulpur (Allahabad), Ghaziabad, Khair (Aligarh), and Meerapur (Muzaffarnagar). “These seats are the ones that were won by BJP candidates,” Rai stated.
The SP decided to nominate candidates for six seats, including Majhwa and Phulpur, where discussions about seat-sharing with the Congress were supposedly taking place. The ruling BJP immediately attributed this to the negative consequences of the Haryana election outcome, in which Congress secured 37 seats out of 90.
“It’s the impact of the Haryana election.” According to UP BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi, in the Haryana assembly elections, the Congress did not win any seats alongside the SP, while the BJP achieved a surprising third consecutive victory by securing 48 seats out of 90. However, the SP stated that the announcement was made with consideration for the seat-sharing. SP spokesperson Fakrul Hasan said the party has released the names of candidates while following the ‘gathbandhan dharma’ to beat the BJP.
SP senior leader Rajendra Chaudhary stated that the decision on seat-sharing with the Congress will be made by the party chief, who will also contest from the Karhal assembly constituency in the upcoming polls. He gave up the seat to keep the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat he won in the recent general elections. bAdditional empty seats consist of Khair (Aligarh), Kundarki (Moradabad), Katehari (Ambedkar Nagar), Phulpur (Prayagraj), Ghaziabad (Ghaziabad), Majhawan (Mirzapur), Meerapur (Muzaffarnagar), and Milkipur (Ayodhya). After SP MLA Irfan Solanki was found guilty and given a seven-year prison sentence, the seat in Sisamau (Kanpur) became empty, increasing the total number of vacant seats to ten.