Samajwadi Party is a bigger partner with more than 100 MLAs in UP Assembly so President Akhilesh Yadav has all the more reason to be in upbeat mood to galvanise party leaders and workers to take on BJP in Lok Sabha polls. Akhilesh Yadav is more aggressive now in launching attack on Modi-Yogi governments for their governance failure. Akhilesh Yadav has asked the party workers and supporters to strengthen alliance of PDA (pichda, dalitand alpsankhaya). The SP supremo is now focusing fully on backward, dalits and Muslims.

Ghosi assembly by-poll also exposed that BSP leader Mayawati was becoming irrelevant in current politics as her voters avoided her appeal to press button of Nota and voted for Samajwadi Party candidate giving jolt to BJP.

Moreover, Akhilesh has also asked party leaders and workers to spread the message at ground level for need of caste census to unite backward classes. Enthused by the success of Ghosi by-election Akhilesh Yadav has asked party leaders and workers to prepare ground for Lok Sabha polls in all the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh. Presently BJP has 62 seats from the state to the Lok Sabha.

Samajwadi Party is also keen to make pan-India presence. That is why it announced six candidates for Madhya Pradesh assembly polls and now candidates for Chhattisgarh assembly polls will be finalized.

Similarly Congress is also in upbeat mood after Ghosi by-poll result as well as with the appointment of Ajay Rai as UPCC president. Significantly Ajay Rai with his statements has not only tried to boost the morale of party leaders but also brought the party programmes in discussion. Ajay Rai, who had earlier contested twice against PM Narendra Modi in Varanasi, announced that he would request Rahul Gandhi to contest from Amethi and Priyanka Gandhi from constituency of her choice.

Recently Ajay Rai convened the meeting of 50 important leaders including former MPs and former MLAs and sought their advice to strengthen the organisation at grass-root level. He assured them that party would ensure defeat of BJP in all the 80 seats and form the Congress government in the state in 2027.

Another important player of INDIA in UP is RLD president Jayant Choudhry who is keen for better understanding with Congress and Bheem Army of Chandrashekhar Ravan having tremendous influence on dalits in Western UP.

Being grandson of former prime minister Ch Charan Singh, Jayant commands influence over powerful jat community of Western UP. Now being partner of INDIA, there is no division in minorities and RLD is looking forward to play important role in Lok Sabha polls. It would be interesting to note that in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BSP had won 10 seats in alliance with SP ..while SP could get its five seats and the Congress got only one.

While Akhilesh Yadav is keen to start set sharing talks with the Congress in the state, the UP Congress has got no directive from the high command for the starting of the talks. Akhilesh still feels that the high command will initiate talks after the CWC meeting in Hyderabad. The SP sources say that the Congress must show understanding about the respective strength of the INDIA partners while initiating the discussions. In 2022 assembly elections, the Congress got only 2 seats with a vote share of slightly more than 2 per cent. SP is ready to consider Congress demand for a few seats –more compared to the GoP’s existing strength. But if the Congress asks for a large number of seats as some sources mentioned about 20 seats, the SP will not agree and go ahead with its alliance without the Congress.

Political sources feel that the Congress high command should take up the issue of alliance with the SP as a part of the pan India alliance and work out an arrangement to the satisfaction of both sides. UP has shown that a total alliance of INDIA partners can defeat the BJP as was shown in Ghosi by polls. So there is every need for the success of the seat sharing talks in Uttar Pradesh in the interests of removing te BJP from power in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. (IPA Service)