News Brief
Congress Mulls Sitting Out UP Bypolls Amid Doubts Over Winning SP-Allotted Seats: Report
Rahul Gandhi with Akhilesh Yadav.
The Congress party is reportedly mulling over a decision not to contest the upcoming assembly by-elections in Uttar Pradesh as the party lacks confidence in its chances of winning the two seats offered by the Samajwadi Party (SP),
However, it intends to participate in campaigning efforts in favour of its ally, the SP.
After being offered the Khair seat in Aligarh district and the Ghaziabad assembly seat by the SP, the grand old party has decided not to field its candidates on these seats and return them to the SP, Deccan Herald reported citing sources in the UP Congress.
The Congress' decision to step back from the race reportedly stemmed from the understanding that their chances of victory in either constituency were slim.
’It is better not to contest than contesting and losing,’’ a senior UP Congress leader was quoted as saying by DH on Sunday.
An official announcement in this regard is likely to be made soon.
Another reason behind the party's decision to withdraw from the bypolls appears to be that if the minority vote for the SP decreases in the bypolls, the Congress can claim it was due to its decision to sit out of the contest.
This could demonstrate the value of the Congress to the SP.
In the recent Lok Sabha elections, BJP candidate Atul Garg secured a decisive victory over Congress contender Dolly Sharma in Ghaziabad, winning by a margin of 3.36 lakh votes.
Garg had also led in the Ghaziabad assembly constituency with a margin of over 60,000 votes.
Meanwhile, the Congress candidate for the Khair seat had garnered a mere 0.6 per cent of the vote share in the 2022 state assembly polls.
Congress reportedly did not want to ‘demoralise’ its workers, who were buoyant after the party’s impressive performance in the state in the LS polls by winning seven of the 17 seats it contested in UP.
The SP has already announced candidates for Sisamau, Manjhawa, Phulpur, Katehari, and Karhal assembly constituencies.
The by-elections for a total of nine assembly seats are scheduled to take place on 13 November.
