UP Elections 2017: As SP-Congress alliance talks teeter, BJP smells blood

 Prospects of forming of an alliance between Samajwadi Party and Congress for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh polls appeared to have run into rough weather, with both parties today hardening their stance over sharing of seats. Senior SP leader Naresh Agarwal said the possibility of an alliance was "almost over" and blamed the "stubborn" attitude of Congress for the deadlock. "The Chief Minister (Akhilesh Yadav) had made an offer of 100 seats to the Congress but they are asking for 120 seats. We told them that we have 234 sitting legislators and there are some others who will also contest. So we need at least 300 seats for ourselves.

"But they became very stubborn as if they command a huge influence in UP and that without them UP will not be able to survive," said Agarwal, Rajya Sabha member considered close to Akhilesh, who is also the SP president.  

Uttar Pradesh Assembly has 403 seats. According to Agarwal, Akhilesh had made it clear that SP cannot give more than 100 seats and "the Congress leaders then informed us that in such a case, there cannot be an alliance." Asked whether scope of further talks still exists, he said the "possibility has virtually dwindled." "I will blame Congress for this...they have helped the BJP. However, we made every effort to forge an alliance but they have been very stubborn..." he said. 

On the other hand, Congress' Central Election Committee met in Delhi and finalised candidates for 140 seats which will go to polls in the first two phases. However, the party did not declare these candidates, leaving scope for possible alliance for which talks were still underway. "We had a meeting of CEC for first and second phase," Congress general secretary and incharge of Uttar Pradesh Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters, adding party's candidates for 140 seats were finalised in this meeting. 

Asked if the alliance with SP was on or over, he said, "Let us see, You will know by tomorrow morning when the announcement is made." UP Congress chief Raj Babbar claimed that the party will fight the first two phases of elections in Uttar Pradesh with full strength. 

Keeping the suspense over the proposed alliance with the SP, Babbar said, "There are no roadblocks in the talks." Sources add that while SP does not want to give more than 100 seats, the Congress which initially put forth the demand of 150 seats under the alliance, has scaled down considerably but is not ready to accept the figure SP is adamant on.

Congress is also learnt to be demanding that its candidates should be fielded in Amethi and Rae Bareli segments of the Lok Sabha constituencies represented by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
Congress is also keen to include Ajit Singh-led RLD in the alliance, which the Samajwadi Party is not keen on.
 

SP has maintained that it will have no truck with RLD and if Congress wanted, it could give its share of seats to Ajit Singh's party. With the Congress and Samajwadi Party failing to forge an alliance in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, a visibly pleased Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday asserted that this development is bound to pave way for the lotus- the party symbol of the BJP- in the state. ‘I am happy that the alliance broke. Besides the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress does not have the capacity to bring development, employment in the region. Only the BJP has the calibre to do so,’ BJP state president Keshav Prasad Maurya told ANI. 

Sensing victory at the assembly polls, Maurya, who was named in the list of BJP’s star campaigners, hoped that the failure of alliance will pave the way for the ‘lotus to bloom’ across Uttar Pradesh.

‘I can sense that the lotus of the BJP is blooming across Uttar Pradesh. Even if the SP, BSP and the Congress form an alliance, it won’t have any major impact. The aim of the BJP is weed out the cancer of hooliganism, caste, nepotism from Uttar Pradesh,’ he said.
 

Meanwhile, in a clear boost to the BJP, the alliance between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party failed to take place over the matter of seat distribution, as the former was demanding more seats than the latter for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
 

When asked about the BJP star campaigner’s list which did not feature senior leaders like L.K. Advani and Varun Gandhi, Maurya said, ‘Though a few names are missing in the list, but wherever the party sees fit, it will deploy its campaigner accordingly and we have the blessings of our senior leaders as well.’

Earlier, The BJP released its list of ‘star campaigners’ for the upcoming Polls which sported the names of several party heavyweights like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party chief Amit Shah and other Union Ministers, but BJP MP from Sultanpur, Varun Gandhi found his name missing from the list.

Joining Varun is BJP MP Vinay Katiyar, the face of the Ram temple movement in early 1990s, who was also dropped from the list by the party. Senior mentors of BJP, Murli Manohar Joshi and LK Advani have also not been mentioned in the list of star campaigners. However, Varun's mother Maneka Gandhi is in the list, and so is controversial party MP Yogi Adityanath. 

With inputs from PTI and ANI