• Thursday, March 28, 2024

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Congress can contest 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls without aligning with SP, BSP, says state leader

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (Photo by Atul Loke/ Getty Images)

By: Shubham Ghosh

UTTAR Pradesh chief of the Indian National Congress Ajay Kumar Lallu on Sunday (4) said his party has the capacity to fight the assembly elections next year without aligning with either the Samajwadi Party (SP) or the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) – two big players in the politics of India’s most important state electorally.

Lallu’s remarks came days after both the SP and BSP ruled out making any major alliances for the elections that are dubbed as the semi-finals before the national elections of 2024.

The president of the UP Congress Committee said the grand-old party would fight the assembly elections in 2022 under the “dekh-rekh” (supervision) of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the general secretary of the All India Congress Committee in charge of UP. He said the party would make a comeback in the state where it has been out of power for more than three decades now.

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Congress has been effective opposition with less members: Lallu
Lallu, who is an legislator of the state assembly from Tamkuhi Raj constituency, said in an interview that the Congress has emerged as the main challenger to the “oppressive” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in UP and that his party with only five legislators has proved to be a more effective opposition than either the SP or the BSP in the 403-member assembly.

The Congress fought the 2017 assembly elections in UP in alliance with the SP, which was the ruling party then, but could win only seven seats with a paltry 6.25 per cent of votes. Vadra was then the AICC’s general secretary for Eastern UP.

Lallu was not ready to give up hope on Vadra yet. He said “winds of change” were blowing across the state against the Yogi Adityanath government saying, “Badlav ki aandhi hai, jiska naam Priyanka Gandhi hai (There is a storm of change and its name is Priyanka Gandhi).”

He said the party’s organisation has been made stronger at various levels under the leadership of Vadra. Asked whether she should be made the Congress’s chief ministerial candidate for the UP elections, Lallu said it was on the national leadership to make such decisions.

On whether the anti-BJP votes could get split if the SP, BSP and Congress contested the polls separately, Lallu said the people of the state had given opportunity to all the political players in the state but since none of them were able to stay true to the faith shown by the people, it was now the Congress’s turn to lead the way.

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