After many setbacks, the alliance between SP and Congress has finally been finalized. Congress will contest on 17 out of 80 seats in UP and Samajwadi Party and other parties of the alliance will contest on the remaining 63 seats. At the time when it was believed that the breakup of the alliance between SP and Congress was certain, Priyanka Gandhi turned the whole matter upside down by talking directly to Akhilesh Yadav. He not only convinced the Samajwadi Party leader to give those seats to the Congress, which the Samajwadi Party was not ready to give, but also laid the foundation for the strengthening of the Congress in the state from east to west.
In fact, the concern of Congress leaders was that if the party fights on the low-impact seats given by SP, it will not only lead to its loss in this election, but the party will also become weak in UP forever. SP had also given those seats to Congress where its traditional voters did not have much influence, which is why the alliance between the two parties was ultimately on the verge of breaking.
According to Congress sources, but at the last moment Priyanka took over. He told Akhilesh Yadav that if they do not fight together, it will not only lead to defeat in this election but may also affect the future electoral politics of the opposition. This is why ultimately a compromise was reached between the two parties.
Rahul worried about the future of Congress
A senior Congress leader told Amar Ujala that when Rahul Gandhi had a conversation with the UP leaders in Delhi, at the same time Rahul Gandhi had said that if there is an alliance with the Samajwadi Party and by staying in the alliance, he will get 15- Even if Congress wins four-five seats by fighting on 20 seats, the future of the party will not be bright. According to Rahul, to strengthen the party in future, he will have to work on it for a long time by making a strategy.
Rahul Gandhi has been talking about strengthening the base of the party, but the way SP was distributing seats, no objective of Congress was being achieved. Neither was the party getting more seats, nor was its base getting stronger. This is why there was a danger of the alliance breaking down.
two options were left
Congress leaders say that Akhilesh Yadav had left two options before them. One- They should fight on the weak seats given by them and lose. This will also destroy the real strength of the party. This could have put the party in danger of being wiped out forever in UP. Last time Sonia Gandhi had won the Rae Bareli seat. But this time he too is not in the field. In such a situation, Congress could face the danger of being reduced to zero.
The second option was that Congress itself should announce its exit from the alliance on the basis of lack of coordination on seats, so that the stigma of leaving the alliance does not fall on Akhilesh Yadav. In this situation, the loss could have been that the party would not have been successful in more seats. However, one advantage of this could be that Congress would have contested the remaining seats and campaigned on every seat. Congress is planning to take advantage of this election to make inroads among the Dalit-Backward-Muslim voters, with the help of which it can dream of standing in its second innings. But this objective of the party would not have been achieved with Akhilesh’s formula.
Why did you travel to the West?
According to the leader, earlier there were preparations to take Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra to Madhya Pradesh via Jhansi after Kanpur. Western Uttar Pradesh was kept out of this route because it was already covered in Bharat Jodo Yatra 1.0. But later the route of the yatra was changed to Western Uttar Pradesh.
There were two big reasons for this – firstly, Congress wanted to give a message to Akhilesh Yadav that it would not go beyond a limit under his pressure. She will not compromise on her core vote bank and core areas where she has the potential to be strong. Second- At present, Muslim voters across the country seem united in favor of Congress. In such a situation, in the upcoming election season, it would be more appropriate for the party to reach out among the Muslim voters and give them the message of uniting with itself.
Rahul Gandhi’s journey has passed through every area from Bihar to West Bengal, where the population of Muslims is high. Keeping this strategy in mind, Western Uttar Pradesh was added to Rahul Gandhi’s visit. It is in Western Uttar Pradesh where Congress can have the greatest chances in UP. On the contrary, if Samajwadi Party separates from Congress, it may suffer huge loss of Muslim voters, without whom it cannot even imagine winning in Western UP.
