UP Assembly bypolls: Congress-SP talks stuck over 3 seats, with both eyeing Muslim, Dalit vote

Congress insiders told The Indian Express that portion the enactment has begun preparations successful each 10 seats, it is not pushing hard connected the 5 – Karhal, Kundarki, Sisamau, Milkipur and Katheri – that the SP won successful 2022. Sources said the SP is acceptable to portion with Ghaziabad and Khair for the Congress, which means that the supra 3 seats stay a bony of contention.

Of the 10 seats – Meerapur, Ghaziabad, Khair, Kundarki, Karhal, Phulpur, Sishamau, Milkipur, Katheri and Majhwan – going to the bypolls, 5 were won by the SP successful 2022. While the BJP won three, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and NISHAD Party won 1 spot each.

Leaders from the Congress and SP person their ain arguments connected wherefore they privation the 3 seats.

Claiming that the SP wants to support each the minority-dominated seats for itself, a Congress person said that Meerapur – wherever the bypoll was necessitated aft sitting RLD MLA Chandan Chauhan won the Bijnor Lok Sabha spot – has a important colonisation of minorities but besides Dalits. “Winning the bypoll present would beryllium to beryllium an vantage for immoderate enactment successful the 2027 Assembly polls,” helium said.

Refuting the claim, a district-level person of the SP successful Muzaffarnagar said the enactment has already constituted booth-level committees successful areas wherever it did not execute good successful the Lok Sabha polls. “We are acceptable to denote candidates arsenic soon arsenic the dates of the bypolls are declared. Also, Chauhan won the spot successful 2022 portion successful confederation with the SP, which helped him consolidate number and Jat votes successful his favour. In effect, helium won owed to the SP’s backing,” the person said. The Congress’ Jamil Ahmad Qasmi, a erstwhile BSP MLA, had garnered a specified 1,258 votes successful the 2022 Assembly polls.

Both the parties besides favour their chances successful the changed equations aft the Lok Sabha polls, wherever minorities and Dalits are believed to person voted successful their favour.

The bypoll successful Phulpur was necessitated aft sitting BJP MLA Praveen Singh Patel won the caller Lok Sabha elections. Here, SP leaders are citing the party’s show successful caller elections to involvement claim, portion the Congress is eyeing the spot to revive its elector basal here.

The SP, which past won the spot successful 2012, gave Patel a tally for his wealth successful the 2017 and 2022 Assembly polls, with its campaigner M M Siddiqui losing by a constrictive borderline of 2,700 votes successful 2022. “The Congress is getting ambitious. The telephone (on the alliance) volition beryllium taken by the nationalist enactment of some parties,” an SP person said.

However, sources wrong the Congress accidental that the number communities are firmly down it and the party’s chances of winning Phulpur are brighter than the SP’s this time.

Majhawan, a spot with a important Dalit population, was won by the NISHAD Party’s Vinod Kumar Bind successful 2022. The bypoll present was necessitated aft the MLA joined the BJP and won the Bhadohi Lok Sabha seat. The Congress and SP are staking assertion to the spot portion eyeing the BSP’s ballot bank.

Apart from its 2022 Assembly canvass show wherever its campaigner emerged arsenic the runner-up, the SP claims erstwhile MLA Ramesh Chand Bind’s induction into the enactment has made Majhawan a “safe seat” for them.

On the different hand, the Congress claims that the Dalit ballot slope is firmly down it and the enactment stands a amended accidental to triumph the spot arsenic it has the the quality to woo a bulk of the electorate – comprising Dalits, Brahmins and Binds, who fig 50,000 each.