With the Samajwadi Party informally announcing that they would offer only 15 seats for the INDIA in Uttar Pradesh, the main partner in the Opposition bloc, the Congress has shown its intention to prepare itself for contesting all the 80 seats in the state.
The UP Congress has intensified preparations for all 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state and all district heads have been instructed to activate booth committees. Lok Sabha area-wise in-charges will also be declared from the state headquarters soon.
Congress spokesperson Anshu Awasthi said there were preparations to contest elections on all the seats in the state. “We have set up organizational units up to booth level. Booth workers are being given training and soon meetings will be started at Gram Panchayat level,” he added.
Awasthi said preparations are being made by the Congress Committee by dividing the 80 Lok Sabha seats of the state into three parts. There are 30 seats each in first and second category, whereas 20 seats have been kept in the third category.
The first category seats include Rae Bareli, Amethi, Sultanpur, Varanasi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Prayagraj, Phulpur, Dhaurahara, Pilibhit, Unnao, Farrukhabad, Banda, Jhansi, Saharanpur, Moradabad, Nagina, Hathras, Fatehpur Sikri, Fatehpur, Ghosi, Jaunpur, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Mathura, Gonda, Dumariyaganj, Maharajganj, Salempur, Chandauli, Robertsganj.
Meanwhile, at the SP state executive meeting held here on Wednesday, Akhilesh Yadav said in case of alliance with other parties, the party itself would contest elections on 65 seats.
However, he said the party would prepare itself for elections in all 80 seats to defeat the BJP.
Yadav called upon the workers to make full preparations now to remove BJP from power in the Lok Sabha elections. This is the last election to save democracy and the constitution in the country. Only Samajwadi PDA (Backward, Dalit and Minority) will remove BJP’s NDA from power.
In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the SP and the BSP had contested 37 and 38 seats respectively in pre- poll alliance leaving two for Congress and 3 for RLD. While the BSP grabbed 10 seats, the SP won 5 and the Congress settled for one.