New Delhi: The Congress on Friday said it would prepare ground on all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and noted that the grand old party needed no crutches for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, in a stern message to the Samajwadi Party.
The Congress and the SP are part of the INDIA alliance that aims to take on the BJP in the national elections.
The ties between the two parties soured recently when the Congress refused to share six assembly seats in the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh with SP.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav then slammed the Congress saying he did not know that the INDIA alliance was only for the Lok Sabha elections and not the state polls and would see the grand old party when seat sharing for the 2024 contest would be taken up.
He had also slammed new UP Congress chief Ajay Rai saying the party should urge its petty leaders not to talk on important matters.
“The remarks made by the SP chief against our state unit chief are unfortunate. He is a former chief minister and should choose his words carefully. The SP is only restricted to UP and their national chief is the same as their state unit chief. But the Congress is a national party and our state unit chief is a big leader,” AICC secretary in charge of UP Pradeep Narwal told ETV Bharat.
According to the Congress leader, the SP chief, who had attended the INDIA meetings in Bengaluru and Mumbai, should have known that the alliance is only for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
“He cannot say now that he did not know this. He was present there. INDIA is for 2024 polls,” said Narwal.
The Congress leader said that the party did not need any crutches in UP and would strengthen itself on all the 80 parliamentary seats in the state.
“We will soon start reviewing all the 80 Lok Sabha seats. We do not need any crutches in UP. We will fight the national polls on our own strength. However, if our national leadership decides on seat-sharing, we will help the SP wherever possible,” said Narwal.
Referring to Akhilesh Yadav’s charge that he had sent SP leaders to discuss seat-sharing with MP Congress chief Kamal Nath, the AICC leader said he had no information on such consultations.
“I don’t have information on MP as I am looking after UP. But I can say that Kamal Nath is our state unit chief in MP and he is authorised to take any decision. If Akhilesh Yadav is serious about fighting the BJP, he should support the Congress to defeat the saffron party in MP and not pick up issues to target us,” said Narwal.
The AICC leader reminded Akhilesh Yadav that the Congress is the one that has the strength to defeat the BJP at national level.
“The SP chief should think about the 2024 battle. In UP the Dalits and the Muslims are supporting the Congress for the next national polls,” said Narwal.
Taking a dig at Akhilesh Yadav, the AICC leader further said that though the SP chief was part of the INDIA alliance, he had sent a renovated bus as a gift for the use of BRS chief and Telangana chief minister KCR, a friend of the BJP, during the state poll campaign.
“What does this gesture show?” Narwal added.
