Sp and RLD reaching an alliance for bypolls

With Samajwadi Party and Rastriya Lok Dal (RLD) reaching an alliance for bypolls to Kairana Parliament and Noorpur Assembly seats with Bahujan Samaj Party supporting them, the Congress is yet to even initiate a final call on fielding a candidate or back the joint opposition candidate to defeat the BJP. 

``State Congress chief Raj Babbar is in Agra on Monday while national chief Rahul Gandhi is away campaigning for Karnatka Assembly poll. So, the two are yet to meet and take a call on the by-polls,” said UP Congress spokesman Virendra Madan in Lucknow on Monday. Interestingly, Madan even failed to clear whether the party would contest the polls on it’s own like in recent Gorakhpur and Phoolpur bypolls or prefer to extend support to the SP-RLD candidates. 

``Everything will be cleared once Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary Gulab Nabi Azad, Raj Babbar etc discuss a strategy in a day or two,” asserted Madan while refusing to make any comment on the issue.

Sources said that the party was confused whether to contest or not, especially after the rubbing faced in Gorakhpur and Phoolpur bypolls in which its candidates lost their deposits. 

A senior Congress leader revealed that the decision was tough for Congress to take. 

``In case we field a candidate and the Opposition (SP-RLD) candidate loses by a thin margin to BJP, then it would not only create embarrassing situation for us but would close our door for a future alliance or a joint opposition during the next Parliament elections”, he explained.

“The general perception both in Kairana and Noorpur is that fielding a candidate by the Congress would benefit the BJP candidates by way of division of minorities votes. One more defeat of BJP now would ensure a non-BJP government at the Center in 2019. So for us, ousting the BJP from power is more important then fielding a candidate in the bypolls,” the leader quipped.