Key Points
New Delhi: Humbled by its defeat in the Haryana elections, the Congress has decided to sit out the Uttar Pradesh assembly bypolls, setting up a bipolar contest between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)...
Formally, the Congress attributed the decision to the need to send out a message of opposition unity against forces of hatred and division, even as leaders of its UP unit privately conceded that the party lacked bargaining power to get suitable seats to contest...
On Thursday, Congress general secretary in-charge of UP Avinash Pande and its state unit chief Ajay Rai announced the decision at a press conference in New Delhi, a day after SP chief Akhilesh Yadav posted on X that all nine candidates will contest on the symbol of SP...
Congress leaders had at the time expressed surprise over the SPs decision and termed it as unilateral, but the two parties continued to hold parleys, with the Congress demanding four seats, namely Meerapur, Khair,Phulpur and Majhawan...
In the 2024 general elections, however, the SP bagged as many as 37 seats, and the Congress six, while the BJPs tally dropped to 33 seats from 62 in the previous general election...
