Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav
The by-election campaign for nine assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh will end at 6 pm on Monday and voting will take place on Wednesday. The Congress backed the Samajwadi Party in the Uttar Pradesh by-elections and leaders of both parties called for an Indian alliance, but the “two boys of Uttar Pradesh” were nowhere to be seen in the campaign. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, alone with his brigade, was seen sweating on all seats.
Apart from Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, Congress president Ajay Rai and state in-charge Avinash Pandey were not on the Samajwadi Party platform for the by-elections. Key leaders of the UP Congress were first busy campaigning for Priyanka Gandhi in Wayanad, Kerala, and then hard at work in the Maharashtra battle. So, does the SP in Uttar Pradesh want to fight alone in the mid-term political elections?
Congress fully supports SP
Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav’s partnership has gained popularity in the Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha elections. The SP-Congress managed to win 43 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state. After failing to secure the required seats in the UP by-elections, the Congress withdrew and gave up all 9 seats to UP. The Congress Party announced its support for the Socialist Party in the by-election. Akhilesh Yadav and Avinash Pandey said the alliance between Samajwadi Party and Congress will continue.
Akhilesh Yadav announced his candidate list for the remaining seats of the BJP after the Congress refused to contest the by-elections and declared support for the Samajwadi Party. Akhilesh also said, “This is not a question of seats, but a question of victory.” According to this strategy, the joint candidates of the “India Alliance” will contest elections in all 9 seats of the SP election mark “cycle”. The Congress Party and the Socialist Party unite and fight side by side to strive for a great victory. The Indian Alliance will surely write a new chapter of victory in this by-election. With the gathering of senior Congress leaders and booth-level workers, the power of the Samajwadi Party has increased manifold.
Congress not taking part in campaign against SP
Akhilesh Yadav claimed to have the support of top Congress leadership and workers. The SP also wrote a formal letter to the Congress asking its key leaders to participate in the by-election campaign. Leaders are being appointed to maintain better coordination between the two parties. Udayveer Singh from SP and PL Punia from Congress are taking the responsibility of maintaining coordination with each other. Despite this, senior Congress leaders remained absent from the Socialist Party platform during the UP by-election campaign.
However, as a rite of passage, some Congress leaders are sure to be present at the by-election campaign. KL Sharma, MP from Amethi, held a rally in support of the Samajwadi Party candidate in Sisamau and was with Akhilesh Yadav. Similarly, Barabanki Tanuj Punia MP is also seeking votes for the Socialist Party candidate in the Ghaziabad seat. KL Sharma and Congress national secretary Neelashu Chaturvedi are sure to be on stage in West Samau along with Akhilesh Yadav, but no other big leaders are seen campaigning on any seat.
One step away from by-elections, Congress gathers in Maharashtra
All major leaders of UP Congress have distanced themselves from the by-election. Congress president Ajay Rai did not campaign for the by-elections to any seat, while UP chief Avinash Pandey also did not turn up. Ajay Rai first went to Kerala to campaign for Priyanka Gandhi and from there he directly started campaigning in the Maharashtra elections. Ajay Rai has been campaigning for Congress candidates in different assembly constituencies in Maharashtra for the past one week.
Meanwhile, Avinash Pandey has been camping in Maharashtra since the elections were announced. Avinash Pandey hails from Nagpur, Maharashtra. In this case, as a home constituency, credibility is at stake, but UP is also responsible for the Congress. Avinash Pandey is not contesting from any seat in the Uttar Pradesh by-elections, but he can be seen campaigning for Maha Vikas Aghadi in all seats in Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi).
UP Congress’ Muslim representative Naseemuddin Siddiqui is also camping in Maharashtra. Saharanpur MP Imran Masood, Lok Sabha MPs Imran Pratap Garhi and Salman Khursheed will stay away from the by-election campaign. Likewise, former Congress leader Ajay Kumar Lalu and MP Pramod Tiwari are not contesting from any seat in the by-elections. All leaders of the UP Congress are contesting in the Maharashtra by-elections.
Congress president Ajay Rai said he was asked to campaign in Maharashtra after returning from Wayanad. Apart from this, many Congress bigwigs were deployed in the Maharashtra elections, and in the UP by-elections, local Congress leaders were solely canvassing votes for the SP. UP Congress organizing general secretary Anil Yadav said Priyanka Gandhi herself is contesting the elections from Wayanad and hence she is busy in her seat. Maharashtra is conducting elections since going to polls.
Meanwhile, Socialist Party spokesman Azam Khan said all parties in the alliance should start building momentum for the by-elections. The Union of India parties were also formally asked to campaign on behalf of the Socialist Party. The SP spokesperson did not make any comment on the Congress but made it clear that the by-election was equally important to the SP and the Indian Union. In this context, all leaders of the Indian Union should take the UP by-elections as seriously as they did the Maharashtra and Jharkhand elections.
Is the SP in political trouble?
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav held several rallies together and completely changed the political atmosphere in Uttar Pradesh, but the two boys were in the Uttar Pradesh Congress There was no by-election, but since then they have unequivocally supported Uttar Pradesh. Senior congressional leaders are not taking part in the campaign and the Socialist Party is trying to navigate its political waters alone. The political importance of this by-election for the SP is understandable as Akhilesh Yadav, who had distanced himself from the Azamgarh by-election, sweated it out on all 9 seats this time.
While the Congress backed the Samajwadi Party in the UP by-elections, the race has become quite interesting with the entry of candidates ranging from BSP to Chandrashekhar Azad and Asaduddin Owaisi to AIMIM. Except for RLD in Meerapur seat and BJP in Kundarki seat, all parties have bet on Muslim candidates. Therefore, the SP’s political equation seems to be disrupted in both the seats. By staying with the Congress, the SP directly gained Muslim and Dalit votes in the Lok Sabha elections, but that does not seem to be happening in the by-elections. In this case, distance between big Congress leaders and the SP platform may also become a matter of concern.
