New Delhi: After appointing a new state unit chief recently, the Congress has adopted an aggressive approach in Uttar Pradesh saying the party plans to contest all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
“We are ready to contest on all the 80 seats,” new state unit chief Ajay Rai said as he started a district-wise review of 2024 Lok Sabha poll preparations from Sitapur on Wednesday. After Rai claimed that several key BSP and SP leaders were likely to join the Congress over the coming days, party insiders said that former BSP leader Imran Masood, who has influence in western UP, was likely to join the grand old party soon.
“Yes, that is correct. Masood is likely to join the party. I am not saying he has a pan-state influence but he certainly has influence in around seven or eight assembly seats in and around the Saharanpur area in western UP,” senior state leader PL Punia told ETV Bharat. “I have also heard that. Imran Masood is an influential leader,” Rajya Sabha member and senior state leader Pramod Tewari said.
Punia said the Congress will present itself in UP more aggressively over the coming days and claimed that the Muslims were supporting the party for the national elections. “The Muslims say that they will support the Congress in 2024 to defeat the BJP even if the grand old party contests the Lok Sabha polls on its own. But they also point out that it will be good if the INDIA alliance fights the polls together," said Punia.
The Congress veteran noted that several BSP and SP leaders were likely to join the party in western UP as the voters had seen through Mayawati’s plan. “Mayawati supports the BJP and the voters have seen that,” said Punia. Masood had left the Congress ahead of the 2022 assembly polls to join the BSP but was expelled by Mayawati in August over anti-party activities (read praising Congress leaders). Since then, speculation has been rife that he was trying to return to the Congress fold.
But while Ajay Rai, who contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Varanasi against Narendra Modi, has adopted an aggressive posture vis a vis the allies SP and RLD, Pramod Tewari was guarded in his response. “There is an INDIA alliance nationally and seat-sharing is being discussed in the state. We will contest the seats that we get strongly but I don’t want to guess the numbers,” said Tewari.
Sources in the party said the Congress is asking for 23 of the 80 seats that it had won in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. The day Rai took office, he had created waves by stating that former party chief Rahul Gandhi would contest from his traditional seat Amethi and UP in-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra could challenge PM Modi in Varanasi. “See, the decisions related to the Gandhi family members are taken by the family itself and not by any AICC or PCC leader,” said Tewari.
