Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh: Congress works out equations, zeroes in on contestants

Congress and Samajwadi Party leaders at a joint press conference in Lucknow on Wednesday.

Having firmed up its seat-sharing arrangement with the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Wednesday after working out the basic arithmetic on many seats for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress is shortlisting leaders who can make a mark in the allocated constituencies.

Nevertheless, declining performance due to the party’s poor organisational structure over the years has remained a cause for concern.

The Congress will contest 17 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and the SP will field its candidates on 63 other seats in the state, according to the arrangement announced by the two parties on Wednesday.

Senior party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi are likely to contest Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seats or vice versa. These two seats were considered Congress bastions in the past. Rae Bareli was the only Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh that the party won five years ago. Rahul Gandhi, however, lost to Union minister Smriti Irani in Amethi in 2019.

Replying to a question, Congress general secretary (incharge UP) Avinash Pande said Rae Bareli and Amethi have been strong seats of the Congress, including that of the Gandhi family, and the party leadership will take a call on fielding Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi from there. He said the Congress will follow the due process to shortlist its candidates for the seats.

Those aware of the developments in the party said Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai may be fielded from Varanasi again. Also, the Congress may consider fielding suspended BSP MP Danish Ali from Amroha. Former MP PL Punia may contest from Barabanki again.

There are indications that All India Congress Committee spokesperson Supriya Shrinate may contest from Maharajganj, the seat that her father the late Harshvardhan Singh represented earlier. The Deoria seat may go to the party’s former MLA and spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh. Former MLA Anugraha Narain Singh is likely to be fielded from Prayagraj.

The Congress may again field Imran Masood, who made a controversial statement against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, from Saharanpur.

Former Union minister Pradeep Jain Aditya is likely to be fielded from Jhansi and former MP Kamal Kishor ‘Commando’ from Bansgaon. The party may nominate its senior leader Rakesh Kapoor from Kanpur Nagar.

The Congress has also made a case for Lakhimpur Kheri and Shravasti seats in the alliance. Senior Samajwadi Party leader and three-term Lok Sabha MP and former Rajya Sabha MP Ravi Prakash Verma, along with his daughter Purvi Verma, joined the Congress in 2023. The Congress wants to field Verma or his daughter from Lakhimpur Kheri.

“Yes, we have done our basic calculations on all the 17 Lok Sabha seats that the party has got in the alliance. A decision to shortlist and field the candidates on these seats will be taken by the party’s leadership soon,” said UPCC president Ajay Rai.

Read more news like this on HindustanTimes.com