Now the Congress to focus on such seats where it had got one lakh and plus votes

New Delhi, Jan 12: The Congress has failed to get space in the alliance formed by the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh despite winning Assembly elections in three important states in the country. Now, the party is left with no other option but to contest Lok Sabha elections alone.

Despite the party winning elections in three big Hindi-speaking states - Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan - the attitude of the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party towards the Congress is a big blow. The party has started preparing for the Lok Sabha elections with a changed strategy.

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Sources said that the party is now mainly focusing on such seats where the it had polled at least one lakh or more votes. However, the party will claim contesting all 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP. The Congress leadership was little disappointed with the decision of the SP and the BSP.

The party leaders accepted that indication from the SP-BSP was clear immediately after the Assembly elections in five states therefore the party started identifying seats and probable candidates on them. But actually a section in the party was trying to be part of the alliance till the last moment.

The problem was that the SP-BSP combine was not ready to give more than 5-6 seats to the Congress while the Congress was not ready for anything less than a dozen of seat. Still the BSP-SP have kept the door of friendship open by not fielding against Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. Congress president tried to put pressure on the SP-BSP by saying that it is difficult for the combine to ignore the Congress in the state.

It was indicated that if the Congress contests elections in the state alone it impact also be on the SP and BSP. A section of the Congress leadership has been advocating that if the Congress does not get respectable seats in the alliance the party should go it alone in the state. This will help the party to retain its team in the region.

The party feels that there are over a dozen such seats on which it has the strength of winning its own with the political equations. Now, when the party is not part of the alliance, it is the time of the party leadership and high command to show their strength in the state.