Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi.
– Photo: Amar Ujala
Expansion
The alliance of Congress-SP in the assembly by-elections in UP will depend on the Maharashtra and Haryana elections. If Congress agrees to give seats to SP in these two states, only then will SP consider any claim of Congress in the UP assembly by-elections. Elections are to be held soon on 10 vacant assembly seats in UP. One of these seats has fallen vacant due to the conviction of Sisamau (Kanpur) SP MLA Irfan Solanki, while nine assembly members have now become Lok Sabha MPs.
The seats of four SP MLAs Akhilesh Yadav, Awadhesh Prasad, Lalji Verma and Zia-ur-Rehman Barq have fallen vacant after they were elected as Lok Sabha members. Akhilesh Yadav won the 2022 assembly elections from Karhal, Awadhesh Prasad from Milkipur, Lalji Verma from Katehari and Zia-ur-Rehman from Kundarki. These seats have now become vacant after BJP MLA Anoop Pradhan Valmiki from Khair, Atul Garg from Ghaziabad and BJP MLA Praveen Patel from Phulpur were also elected as Lok Sabha members. Nishad Party MLA Vinod Kumar Bind from Majhava (Mirzapur) and RLD MLA Chandan Chauhan from Meerapur have also now become MPs.
In this way, the Election Commission will soon conduct elections on these 10 vacant seats. Congress is also seeking partnership with SP in the assembly by-elections under the Congress India Alliance. However, the relations between the two parties had soured due to not giving a seat to SP in the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections held before the Lok Sabha elections. Assembly elections are to be held in Maharashtra and Haryana in October this year. SP sources say that if Congress agrees to give some seats to their party in Maharashtra and Haryana, only then can any seat be considered for Congress in the UP by-election.
SP has been winning elections in Maharashtra
Let us tell you here that in the 2019 assembly elections in Maharashtra, two SP MLAs won. Even before this, SP has been winning elections there. On this basis, SP has decided to stake claim in Maharashtra.
Muslim-Yadav equation effective in many seats of Haryana
At the same time, the Muslim-Yadav equation is dominant on 20 seats in Haryana, which SP believes is in its favour. Regarding this, SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary says that there is an alliance between SP and Congress in UP, but any decision regarding seats in the by-elections will be taken by the SP leadership when the time comes.