Congress to focus on 26 seats in UP

Lucknow: Even as it patiently waits for the grand alliance to materialise in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress has narrowed down its choice to about 26 Lok Sabha seats.

The party is focusing on these seats that rank high on the winnability scale.  The party has a strong presence on these seats and had lost some of them with a narrow margin.

“We are hopeful of an alliance and we are even willing to make adjustments but we cannot sit idle till the alliance is formalised. We have narrowed down on our candidates and have asked the party cadres to start working on these seats”, said an AICC general secretary who did not wish to be named.

Sources said that the constituencies on the Congress list include Amethi, Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh, Kanpur, Unnao, Sultanpur, Barabanki, Dhaurhara, Kushinagar, Moradabad, Bareilly, Lucknow, Varanasi, Allahabad, Farukkhabad, Saharanpur, Jaunpur, Mathura, Faizabad and Fatehpur Sikri among others.

Congress leaders have been strictly warned against issuing any statement on the proposed alliance.

“The party high command will address the issue as and when it is needed. Uncalled for statements by party leaders only serve to complicate political relationships”, the AICC leader said.

He said that the alliance was most likely to be formalised after the results of the assembly elections in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are announced.

Meanwhile, another veteran party leader said that the Congress was aware of its weak position in Uttar Pradesh but expected a ‘respectable’ share of seats. “We are not over-estimating ourselves and we are also ready to give or take a few seats. The larger issue is to forge the alliance and defeat the BJP”, he said.

UPCC president Raj Babbar, when questioned, said, “The issue of alliances at the national level will be decided by the party high command who is viewing the situation on a national perspective. As of now, we are trying to strengthen our organisation down to the booth level, address the concerns of party workers and mobilise voters to the best of our abilities”.

The party, sources said, has also been asked to adopt a more aggressive posture in the state assembly. Congress legislature party leader Ajay Kumar Lallu said on Saturday, “We are going to raise issues concerning the poor people and just because the numbers are not on our side (The Congress has only seven members in the house of 403) , people should not think that the Congress will not have a voice in the house.”