Tuesday, January 13, 2009

SP Hammers Congress’ Alliance Hopes


The Samajwadi Party on Monday slighted the Congress by unilaterally announcing another five Lok Sabha candidates from Uttar Pradesh but stopped short of driving in the final nail in the alliance coffin by refraining from picking candidates for the Amethi, Rae Bareli, Sultanpur, Farrukhabad and Pratapgarh LS constituencies.

The five candidates declared by SP on Monday take the total tally of hopefuls declared by the party to 51, media reports attributing the information to credible sources say the 51 seats are non negotiable.

The announcement leaves the Congress with a final ask of 29 as Uttar Pradesh, arguably the country’s most important electoral battleground is drawn into a total of 80 parliamentary constituencies.

The SP action may be viewed as a repartee to similar ploys initiated by the Congress ahead of elections to the Madhya Pradesh Assembly where several SP legislators quit the party to join the Congress on virtually the election eve.

The Congress, caught in a corner between the irreverent SP and an advancing Bahujan Samaj Party, attempted to play down the ignominy hoping that better sense would prevail and the SP would pull nominees out of constituencies where the Congress had “stronger” claims.

Uttar Pradesh is definitely the deepest wrinkle on the Congress brow in the run up to the LS elections as the party, with help from allies SP, must put up a brave show to halt not just BSP czarina Mayawati but also the ‘main opposition’ BJP if it plans on returning to power on the other side of the hustings.

The inability of the Congress and SP to strike a reasonable association ahead of the polls is sure to fillip BSP chances as a quadrangular contest is almost certain to polarize votes in an equation that pundits suggest will throw the primary contest between BSP and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Having set her sights on the top office in the country, BSP watchers say Mayawati riding on a ‘socially engineered’ wave is almost sure to put up a lion hearted fight for all the 80 seats in UP and a victory in 50 is what is sure to catapult her to a new address at Race Course Road n New Delhi.

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