Congress stand on SP, BSP leaves workers clueless

Even though winter is round the corner, the summer of discontent has set in again in the UP Congress.

The party leaders are busy taking out yatras across the state to mobilise voters and cadres, but party workers continue to remain confused about the party’s position towards the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Throughout his month-long Kisan Yatra in Uttar Pradesh, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi mounted a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP but avoided criticising the SP and BSP.

This has apparently sent conflicting signals among party workers.

“In Uttar Pradesh, we should be fighting the SP and BSP because it is these parties that have encroached upon our traditional Muslim and Dalit votebanks. Instead, we are waging a ‘national battle’ in the state”, said a district president from eastern UP.

UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s statement two days ago, supporting Mr Rahul Gandhi’s ‘khoon ki dalaali’ statement, has further added to the confusion in the Congress ranks. Almost simultaneously, SP MP Amar Singh praised UPCC president Raj Babbar in an interview to a national daily.

“We do not know whether this sudden softening of the Samajwadis towards Congress is deliberate or with an eye on a post poll alliance but it is certainly leaving us confused”, said a ticket aspirant form Moradabad.

Congress MLA Akhilesh Pratap Singh, however, denied any possibility of a Congress-SP post poll alliance.

According to sources, it was on the advice of political strategist Prashant Kishor, that the Congress leadership ‘ignored’ SP and BSP, and focussed its attack on the BJP.

Defending the strategy, a senior UPCC leader said that the BJP will be the main challenger to the Congress in the upcoming assembly elections.

“We have to position ourselves as a viable alternative to the BJP and that is what we are doing,” the leader said.