Samajwadi-Congress alliance on for Uttar Pradesh assembly polls

The first pre-poll alliance for assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh in the last decade-and-a-half was formalised on Sunday at Lucknow. The Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance would contest for all the 403 seats in the state. Congress will field 105 candidates; rest of the seats, Samajwadi Party has kept to itself.

The emphasis of the alliance will be on youth, good governance and on fighting communal forces, said SP and Congress insiders. The assessment in both the parties is that the combined appeal of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi will pose a formidable challenge to the old, entrenched leaders of other parties.

While the BJP has refrained so far from projecting a chief ministerial candidate, it is also facing unrest within from party leaders dissatisfied with ticket distribution. The party is also hamstrung by far too many chief ministerial aspirants staking their claim.

The SP-Congress alliance, said sources, would like to appeal to people at large for support and not to particular castes and communities as would happen in past elections. Both Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi are said to be on the same page over the need to project an aspirational, modern and youthful alliance.

Sheila Dikshit, who was projected as the Congress party’s chief ministerial face, but gracefully withdrew once it was announced that Samajwadi Party and Congress would form a pre-poll alliance, told National Herald that the initiative for an alliance had come from Akhilesh Yadav. "He appeared convinced that if SP and Congress contested the election jointly, the alliance could win as many as 330 seats.” Dikshit added that the alliance would be a formidable contender in UP. “BJP is a communal party that believes in divide and rule. It is opposed to our core values and we certainly want to see it defeated in the election.”