‘SP-BSP Closed Chapter’: Cong To Contest From All 80 Seats in UP

“They’ve closed this chapter,” said Ghulam Nabi Azad after the Congress was left out of the SP-BSP alliance.

The Congress on Sunday, 13 January, said that it will contest on all 80 seats from Uttar Pradesh.

(Photo altered by The Quint)

A day after the Samanjwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) officially announced their alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Congress on Sunday, 13 January, said it will contest in all 80 seats from Uttar Pradesh.

“We will fight in all 80 seats of Uttar Pradesh in upcoming Lok Sabha elections. We are fully prepared. And just like the Congress emerged the No 1 party in Uttar Pradesh in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, we will fight on our own and win twice those number of seats in upcoming elections,” said a senior Congress leader in Delhi.

Addressing a press meet, Congress Leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said the Congress was ready to ally with any party against the BJP and that they weren’t the ones who broke the alliance in the first place.

“We didn’t break this alliance, public should know that. We had earlier also said that we’re ready to walk with every party that wants to defeat BJP. But we can’t force anyone. They’ve (SP-BSP) closed this chapter, so we’ll continue this fight for defeating the BJP on our own.”

Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress Leader

The decision by the Congress comes after party president Rahul Gandhi said the SP and BSP had a right to have a political alliance and that he respects them.

Once arch-rivals, SP and BSP on Saturday announced their tie-up in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, sharing 38 seats each and keeping the Congress out of the alliance.

The parties, however, said they would not field candidates in Amethi and Raebareli, represented by Congress President Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

They also left two seats out of the 80 in the state for smaller allies, without naming them. But there have been talks with Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal.

‘Scams, Shams and No Transfer of Votes’

Explaining why the Congress was not included in the alliance, Mayawati said that during that party's rule over the years, poverty, unemployment and corruption grew and there were scams in defence deals.

"Just as the Bofors scam uprooted the Congress, the BJP will witness the same fate because of its involvement in the Rafale scam," she said, referring to the allegations against the ruling party in a deal for French military aircraft.

She also said her party has not benefitted in seat-sharing pacts with the Congress.

“In the past, I have seen that our votes get transferred to the Congress, but not vice versa. We do not gain from an alliance with the Congress, whereas the vote transfer is perfect in an SP-BSP tie-up,” Mayawati said.

Drawing a parallel between the BJP and the Congress, the BSP chief said the Congress had imposed Emergency, while the BJP is responsible for ‘an undeclared Emergency’.