The Samajwadi Party is all set to snap ties with the Congress party. The SP doesn’t want to take the blame for this on itself. So the SP is tossing up options and wants to create such a kind of political atmosphere so that the Congress party itself snaps ties with the SP. The SP had learnt lessons from the Congress party’s dubious role with the National Conference in J&K Assembly elections besides other political ventures of the Congress party even with its allies.
For this the SP demanded Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh during the Assembly election. Not only that, the SP also demanded seats in the Haryana Assembly election. The SP is demanding seats in Maharashtra Assembly poll disproportionate to its strength.
The SP is using such ploys only to disassociate itself with the Congress party. The SP did not offer any seat in the ongoing 9 seats Assembly by-polls in Uttar Pradesh. The SP announced candidates on six assembly seats in UP for by-polls without consulting the Congress party. This announcement by the SP was clearly with an intention that the Congress party starts murmuring within the alliance and the SP would disassociate itself from the Congress party. But the Congress party did not dare to even raise any issue from this step of the SP. Now the Congress party without considering sentiments of its cadres announce that it would not even contest from any of the 9 Assembly seats.
The SP knew the strength and the weaknesses of the Congress party in UP. The Congress party and the Gandhi family had only interest with two Lok Sabha seats in Up. These seats are Amethi and Rae Bareli. The alliance between the Samajwadi party and the Congress party is basically the alliance between the SP and the Gandhi family. Akhilesh Yadav knew that the Gandhi family wouldn’t win these two seats without his support so the SP started blackmailing and bringing the Congress party to cut down to its size.
The weakness of the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh can be judged from its performance in the 2022 Assembly poll. In the 2022 Assembly poll by contesting on 399 seats the Congress party forfeit its deposit on 387 seats and also trailed by the NOTA on 62 ACs.
Even in the 2024 LS election, Akhilesh Yadav ensured that senior Congress party leader Raj Babbar should be expelled from State politics. Raj Babbar who defeated Dimple Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav’s wife from Firozabad LS seat in 2009 by-poll by huge margin of 85,343 votes, was forced to contest from Gurgaon in Haryana. Besides, Raj Babbar’s role in UP politics and other political activities was completely minimized. Raj Babbar was one of the four Congress party candidates in the 2019 LS poll who was in direct contest in UP. Other candidates were Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli), Amethi (Rahul Gandhi), Sriprakash Jaiswal (Kanpur) and Raj Babbar (Fatehpur Sikri). Even in such a situation Raj Babbar was not allowed to contest from any of the seats in UP. The Congress party never paid respect to its local leaders and cadres.
Now in the 2024 LS election due to alliance with the SP the Congress party won six seats by contesting 17 seats. The strike rate within the INDI Alliance in UP was strikingly different. The strike rate of the SP was 60 per cent while that of the Congress party was 35 per cent.
In the recently concluded Assembly election in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir the Congress party played spoilsport to the National Conference. The Congress party solicited nearly double seats than its original strength from the NC and even after that the Congress party went on with the friendly contest with its ally the NC on seven seats. The Congress party was not even in direct contest on any of the seven seats. On the contrary the NC won 4 and the Aam Aadmi party won one seat among the seven seats.
The Congress party also played its dubious role with Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary and don’t pay him proper regard. The Congress party played its tested policy of use and through to Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary. Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary was leader of the Congress party in previous Lok Sabha and he played his role perfectly. But he was also shown the door. By its behavior to Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary it seemed that the Gandhi family was also interested to ensure his defeat so that Rahul Gandhi donot face any kind of hurdle within his party. If Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary would win his LS election then he would be bounded by the party to appoint him the Leader of Opposition by the Congress party. But under current political circumstances Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary has no other option but either to form his own party or join the BJP.
