Cong says no candidates against SP, BSP members

In an indication of bitterness creeping in their relations, Congress, apparently returning the favour, on Sunday said that it would not field candidates against members of Samajwadi Party (SP) patron Mulayam Singh Yadav's family and BSP supremo Mayawati in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

UP Congress president Raj Babbar told reporters here that the grand old party would also not put up its nominees against Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajeet Singh and his son Jayant Chaudhary.

SP, BSP and RLD have forged an electoral alliance in Uttar Pradesh in the forthcoming LS elections. Congress has been kept out of the grand alliance.

''They (grand alliance) have left two seats-Raebareli and Amethi (the LS constituencies of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi respectively)...we thank them for the same....we will also not field our candidates on the seats from where some of their senior leaders are in the fray,'' he said.

He said that Congress would leave Kannauj (Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav), Mainpuri (Mulayam), Ferozabad (SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav's son Akshay), Baghpat (Jayant), Muzaffarnagar (Ajeet Singh) seats for the alliance.

Babbar said that his party would also leave seats for Akhilesh and Mayawati, should they decide to contest the polls.

Besides Congress has also left two seats of Gonda and Pilibhit for Krishna Patel faction of Apna Dal (AD). Krishna Patel is the mother of union minister Anupriya Patel, whose faction of AD has entered into an alliance with the BJP and has been given two seats.

Babbar's remarks were being viewed as an indication of increasing bitterness between the Congress and the grand alliance partners in the state.

Akhilesh has been saying that Congress is part of the grand alliance. ''We have left two seats for Congress,'', he would often tell when queried in this regard.