Congress, SP alliance To Remain For Bye-Polls On 10 Seats In UP, Talks On

New Delhi, July 18: The Congress is all set to continue its alliance in Uttar Pradesh with Samajwadi Party for the bye polls on 10 assembly seats in the state, to keep the momentum going in favour of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc.

According to party leaders, the Congress will contest the bye-polls for 10 assembly seats, for which the dates will be announced in the coming days.

The party leader said that the Alliance between rhe two parties is still intact in the political crucial state, as it sends 80 MPs to Paiament in the Lok Sabha.

A party source, however, said that a meeting of senior party leaders, including state incharge Avinash Pandey, state unit chief Ajay Rai and district and block President’s of the assembly seats will take place on July 21.

After that meeting, the leaders will hold talks with the Samajwadi Party leaders to decide on number of seats which each party will contest, the source said.

However, a final stamp of the formula will be given during the meeting of senior leadership of Congress with the Samajwadi Party in the national capital during the budget session of Parliament commencing from July 22, the source added.

The byepoll, necessitated by the victory of sitting MLAs in Lok Sabha polls, in alliance.

The 10 Assembly seats which will go to polls, five were held by the SP, three by the BJP, one each by BJP allies RLD and NISHAD party.

Although the number of seats to be shared between the two is still unknown, the Congress is said to contest the seats which were held by the BJP and its allies, the source said.

The five seats that were held by SP includes Katehari (Ambedkar Nagar), Karhal (Mainpuri), Milkipur (Ayodhya), Kundarki (Moradabad) and Sisamau (Kanpur).

The seat of Sisamau has been vacated by sitting SP MLA Irfan Solanki who has been disqualified owing to his conviction and a sentence of seven years in a criminal case.

Of them, Katehari has been vacated by SP MLA Lalji Verma who got elected to Lok Sabha from Ambedkar Nagar Lok Sabha seat.

Similarly, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav resigned from Karhal (Mainpuri) assembly seat after winning from Kannauj Lok Sabha seat.

The development comes in the wake of a magnificient comeback by the Samajwadi Party and Congress in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections in the state, where it made a massive dent in the seats of the BJP. The Congress won five seats out of 17 seats it contested in the state while the Samajwadi Party had won 37 seats.

The UP assembly had declared these 10 seats vacant between June 7 and 18 and the bypoll there will be held within six months from the date of vacancy.

The Election Commission may hold the bypoll there along with the election to assemblies of Haryana and Maharashtra, later this year.