After facing a drubbing in the recent by-polls at Gorakhpur and Phoolpur Parliament seats where their candidates even lost their deposits, the Congress is now confused whether to field it’s candidates for Kairana and Noorpur bypolls or support the joint Opposition candidates. Divergent opinions of senior leaders seem to have confused the party brass, which has further delayed a final decision in this regard. Interestingly, for Gorakhpur and Phoolpur by-polls, the Congress took the lead in announcing its candidates.

“The party brass has not taken a call so far regarding candidates for the Kairana Parliament seat and Noorpur Assembly seat bypolls,” said UP Congress spokesman Virendra Madan in Lucknow on Saturday evening.

When asked whether the party would go it alone or support the joint opposition candidate for the two seats, Madan said that a decision on this is likely to be taken by Sunday evening and only then he could make a comment.

Sources said that upset with the results of recent bypolls, Congress leaders contacted Rastriya Lok Dal (RLD) brass and offered them to have an understanding to jointly contest in Kairana and Noorpur.

However, the effort came a cropper as RLD top guin Jayant Chaudhary had closed door meeting with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday and almost thrashed out a formula to field joint candidates to defeat the BJP.

the RLD-SP understanding has somewhat upset the Congress as another major outfit Bahujan Samaj Party has already declared that it would not take active part in any byelection.

Besides, both SP and RLD have decided to consult Mayawati before announcing their candidates which would naturally get the BSP’s support to them.

The Kairana Lok Sabha and Noorpur Assembly seats fell vacant following the deaths of BJP MP Hukum Singh and BJP MLA Lokendra Singh.

Party brass has not taken a call so far regarding candidates ; UP Congress