Cong releases 3rd list for UP
A day after the Mayawati government announced to split Uttar Pradesh into four states, the Congress on Wednesday released a third list of 78 candidates for the upcoming state Assembly polls.
UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi’s brother Shekhar Bahuguna, sons of party MPs Jagdambika Pal and Harshvardhan and former Union minister Salim Sherwani’s brother find a place in the list.
With this, the party has so far cleared the candidates for 243 seats in the 403-member state Assembly.
According to the party insiders, about 13 Youth Congress activists got nominations and there are 14 Brahmins in the list which accommodated candidates from the Most Backward Caste communities.
The list contains candidates from eastern and central UP. The party has, however, refrained from announcing candidates on seats in western UP, where talks are still on for an alliance with Mr Ajit Singh’s RLD for the polls due early next year.
Apparently irked at the delay in stitching the alliance, Mr Singh during the day said, “Talks are on with the Congress. But this does not mean a tieup is necessarily taking place. There is still no certainty. There are several issues like seat-sharing, campaign strategy and manifesto that need to be worked out.”
Meanwhile, the Congress leaders are predicting that Ms Mayawati’s card of divisions of UP will not work in the coming Assembly election.
“There is no enthusiasm among the people on the announcement of creating four states. People did not come out on streets, burst crackers,” they pointed out.
UP has been a strong political state and thus influencing national politics. Ms Mayawati’s card, a desperate move to retain power, would weaken the role of UP at the national level, they said.
Meanwhile, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh termed as “match-fixing between the BSP and SP” the police case against Congress leaders, including Union ministers Jitin Prasada and R.P.N. Singh, in connection with the scuffle at a rally in Phulpur on Monday.
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