Will ally only with small parties for Uttar Pradesh polls: Congress rules out tie-ups with SP, BSP

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: Congress has joined the group of political players who want to seek an alliance only with smaller parties as part of their strategy ahead of the 2022 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Kumar Lallu expressed the desire on Sunday to tie up with only smaller regional parties for the upcoming assembly elections.

“The issue of joining hands with bigger players in Uttar Pradesh (UP) ahead of assembly polls is out of question for us,” Ajay Kumar Lallu while talking to media persons.

However, the UP Congress chief expressed confidence that his party was set to make an impressive comeback after three decades of hiatus in UP politics.

He substantiated his claim by saying that all the respective governments including that of SP, BSP and BJP had failed to live up to people’s expectations.

Congress had its last government in undivided UP in 1989 with late ND Tiwari as their Chief Minister.

However, the UPCC chief chose not to divulge the party strategy to make a comeback.

Calling the Congress the “main challenger” to the BJP when Uttar Pradesh goes to the polls early next year, Lallu said his party was confident of forming the government in the state after contesting the elections under the leadership of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

“We are moving forward as a strong opposition force and under the leadership of Priyanka ji, we will win the polls, and form the government in 2022,” said Lallu.

Even the BSP and the SP have so far ruled out any alliance with Congress. While SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has already expressed his party’s choice of stitching an alliance with smaller parties, BSP supremo Mayawati has made it clear that her party would contest on its own in 2022.

Earlier in the day, Lallu extended his support for the farmers protesting against the Centre’s contentious agricultural laws as they gathered at Muzaffarnagar in the state for the Kisan Mahapanchayat called by the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha.

In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the Congress managed to bag only seven seats while its ally SP secured 47 seats; the BSP won 19 seats.

The BJP, meanwhile, won the elections with a thumping majority by clinching 312 of 403 seats legislative assembly to form the government.