Looking to recover from the Lok Sabha election debacle, the Congress proposes to work out a strategy to fight the forthcoming by-elections to 12 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh. The party will also start giving shape to road map for the 2022 assembly elections in the state.

Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Raj Babbar said,”Yes, we will draw a strategy for by-election to 12 assembly seats in the next few days. We will make efforts to select candidates for the by-polls by evolving a consensus among leaders of district and city party units and others in the party.”

Babbar made the assertion a day after he attended a meeting that Congress general secretary for east UP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and party general secretary for west UP Jyotiraditya Scindia convened in New Delhi on Thursday to review the party’s performance in the Lok Sabha elections.

Babbar said the Congress will now begin working out a roadmap for 2022 assembly elections in the state.

“After reviewing the party’s performance, both the leaders asked for working out a road map for future and leave the drubbing in 2019 Lok Sabha elections behind,” he said.

After announcing the appointment of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Jyotiraditya Scindia as party general secretaries for east and west UP respectively earlier this year, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had said he was tasking both Priyanka and Jyotiraditya with strengthening the party organisation and get a Congress government formed in 2022 assembly elections in the state.

As the Congress begins drawing a roadmap for 2022 Lok Sabha elections, the party proposes to have a close look at the association of leaders who had joined the party ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Some such leaders may have come to Congress for a ticket for themselves or the leaders close to them. “We will have to watch who stays with us and those who distance themselves from the party,” said Babbar.

The by-polls, being dubbed a a mini-assembly election of sorts, will be held for 12 seats that have fallen vacant following election of 11 MLAs as MPs and disqualification of BJP MLA from Hampirpur Ashok Chandel. The ruling BJP and the opposition parties have begun preparations for the by-poll. The BSP, which contested Lok Sabha election in alliance with the SP and the RLD, has decided to break away from the alliance and contest the by-poll all alone. The BSP used to stay away from contesting the by-elections in the past. The SP too is gearing up while the RLD has given indications of continuing its alliance with the SP.

Eleven MLAs elected to Lok Sabha include eight from BJP and one each from Apna Dal (Sone Lal), Samajwadi Party and BSP. The BJP MLAs who were elected MPs include three UP ministers Rita Bahuguna Joshi (Allahabad), Satyapal Singh Baghel (Agra) and Satyadev Pachauri (Kanpur).

The other MLAs elected to Lok Sabha include BJP’s RK Singh Patel (Banda), Pradeep Kumar (Kairana), Akshyawar Lal Gaur (Bahraich), Upendra Singh (Barabanki), and Rajvir Singh Diler (Hathras) to Lok Sabha. Apna Dal’s (Sone Lal) ) Sangam Lal Gupta (Pratapgarh), Samajawadi Party’s Mohamamd Azam Khan (Rampur) and BSP’s Ritesh Pandey (Ambedkar Nagar).

First Published: Jun 08, 2019 17:55 IST