SP, Congress will put up united fight in U.P., says Ajay Rai

Uttar Pradesh Congress President Ajay Rai. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai on Tuesday said that irrespective of the outcome of the seat-sharing talks with the Samajwadi Party (SP), both parties will contest the upcoming bypolls in the State unitedly. He said that the only goal of the INDIA alliance is to defeat the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“In the byelections, Congress will fight unitedly as a coalition. The goal of our INDIA alliance (SP-Congress alliance) is to defeat the BJP which instigates riots and carries out fake encounters. The ruling party is anti-farmer and anti-women, which adversely impacted the common people, primarily the poor, Scheduled Castes (SC) and minorities in the State,” he said.

Mr. Rai didn’t elaborate whether the grand old party will support the SP on all nine seats or contest from any of them in alliance.

The Congress and the SP have failed to reach a consensus over seat sharing for the bypolls to nine Assembly seats—Karhal, Khair, Ghaziabad, Phulpur, Majhawan, Kundarki, Katehari, Meerapur and Sishamau—on November 13. The counting of votes is scheduled for November 23.

The SP reportedly offered two seats—Ghaziabad and Khair—to the Congress, which are seen as ‘weak seats’ by the grand old party. The SP has maintained that the seat-sharing talks with the Congress are on.