The Congress announced on Tuesday that it would field its candidates in the Samajwadi Party bastions, Mainpuri, Kannauj and Etawah, in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
This implies that the bonhomie between Congress and Samajwadi Party is slowly fading out.
UPCC president Nirmal Khatri said at a press conference on Tuesday that party cadres in these districts strongly feel that the Congress must field its candidates in these constituencies.
In 2009, the Congress had not put up its candidates in these two constituencies after the Samajwadi Party left the field clear for the Congress in Rae Bareli and Amethi.
Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav holds the Mainpuri seat while his daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav holds the Kannauj seat and Etawah is considered the family bastion of the Yadav clan.
“Congressmen coming from these districts said that they felt virtually abandoned because there is no election talk and no central minister or leader of any standing visits these districts,” the UPCC president said.
He said AICC general secretary in charge of UP affairs Madhusudan Mistry also felt that it would not be right to abstain from these districts in the elections.
“The Congress symbol would be absent from the EVMs in these districts. The booth level to district level organisational structure can not be nurtured without contesting elections,” he said.
He said he fully supported the view of the leaders from these districts and felt that the Congress should not give up contesting from these constituencies otherwise the party’s vote share would be diminished.
He said that seats should be left only if there was a pre-poll alliance with a party.
Earlier in the day, Mr Madhusudan Mistry held a meeting with the Congress leaders of the Lucknow zonal which includes districts of Unnao, Kanpur, Aurraiya, Etawah and Mainpuri.
The meeting was attended by party office-bearers, MPs and MLAs. While Unnao MP Annu Tandon and Kanpur Dehat (Akbarpur) MP Raja Ram Pal turned up, Kanpur MP and Union minister Sri Prakash Jaiswal had excused himself.