Congress general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad and UP Congress chief Raj Babbar held a closed-door meeting with senior leaders. (Express photo: Prem Nath Pandey/File)Putting speculations to rest, the Congress Sunday announced to field its candidates from 80 seats in UP in this year’s Lok Sabha elections. This comes a day after old rivals Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) announced a poll-alliance in the state to counter the ruling BJP.
Congress General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad and UP Congress chief Raj Babbar held a closed-door meeting with senior leaders in Lucknow, PTI claimed. “If any secular party competent to fight the BJP, willing to go with us, we will accommodate them,” PTI quoted the party as saying.
Azad had Saturday said the party would not react immediately and would come out with a detailed reaction in Lucknow.
The Congress, out of any coalition in the state, might go alone in the Lok Sabha elections but may choose not to field candidates on a few seats, PTI claimed a party source as saying.
BSP supremo Mayawati had said Saturday that the SP-BSP alliance won’t field any candidate from Amethi (currently held by party chief Rahul Gandhi) and Rae Bareli (held by Sonia Gandhi) seats. The Congress may see it as a back-door opportunity to join the alliance post elections.
Both SP and BSP will contest on 38 seats each of the total 80 Lok Sabha seats. In the 2014 elections, the BJP-led NDA, riding on the Modi wave, swept the state with 73 seats.
