Congress campaign in UP faces alliance hurdle

The ongoing feud within Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family has not only hit the Samajwadi Party’s poll preparations in Uttar Pradesh, but also impacted the Congress campaign in the state.

Although the Congress leaders have been maintaining that there will not be any kind of alliance with the SP for the Assembly elections, conflicting signals from the party high command in this regard have brought the poll preparations to a complete halt.

The state poll committee of the Congress has finalised candidates’ names for all 403 Assembly seats and has sent it to the central leadership for approval, the party sources said.

However, a majority of the Congress leaders at the district level are in favour of an alliance with the Akhilesh Yadav faction of the SP, the sources added.

 These leaders say that the party does not have any organisation at the grass-roots level in a majority of constituencies.

Muslim vote

“Besides, an alliance with the SP will ensure that there is no division in the Muslim votes. It will benefit both the parties,” a leader said.

Akhilesh Yadav has been advocating a pre-poll alliance with the Congress.

However, the uncertainty over the alliance caused by the crisis in the SP has hit the Congress’ poll  preparations.

 “Until the air is cleared over the alliance, we cannot launch our election campaign. We do not know about the Assembly constituencies from where we have to contest,” said a senior state Congress leader here.

The leader added that the party was keeping an eye on the developments in the SP.

The party sources also said that the chances of alliance would dim if the two SP factions unite. SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav has already ruled out any sort of alliance.

State Congress president Raj Babbar, too, appears to be unsure of the alliance.

“We have sent the poll panel the names of candidates for all seats. It is up to the central leadership to take a call. We will follow the directions of the high command,” Babbar said here on Tuesday.