UP's opposition units raise concerns

Though it is still early, state units of Congress and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) - allies of the Samajwadi Party (SP) have started expressing their reservations regarding working with the party as part of the opposition unity being forged for the 2024 polls. The reservations may signal a tough road ahead in terms of seat-sharing for the larger alliance in Uttar Pradesh.

Senior leaders of all three parties, however, say that while state leaders may express their personal views every now and then, it is the national leadership which has the last word and they have so far been positive about the alliance.

In a meeting of UP Congress last week, many leaders, largely from Muslim-dominated western districts said they were against an alliance with SP, considering the minority community's "disillusionment" with the party which counts Muslims and Yadavs as core supporters, and willingness to shift to Congress, ET has learnt. This was also exemplified in some ways in results of recently held civic polls where the SP performed worse than Congress in Moradabad. In Saharanpur too, SP was the second runner up, behind BJP and BSP.