Former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday insisted that the Opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) remains intact a day after his Samajwadi Party (SP) unilaterally announced six of the 10 candidates for the assembly by-polls in Uttar Pradesh even as allies increased pressure on the Congress as it suffered an unexpected loss in Haryana and underperformed in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K).
“It is not time to discuss anything political today, but the INDIA alliance is intact in UP [Uttar Pradesh]...Samajwadi Party and Congress will be in alliance in Uttar Pradesh. ...we will discuss other political issues next time,” said Yadav, who was in his ancestral Saifai village on the occasion of his father and SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav’s second death anniversary.
State Congress chief Ajay Rai said Akhilesh Yadav echoed them in saying the INDIA bloc will remain together. “Both SP and Congress will contest the elections together. ...there are some ups and downs everywhere. Earlier, we demanded five seats, but we may get four. This does not mean that the alliance will be broken. The Congress will make announcements about the remaining...[bypoll candidates]...shortly.”
On Wednesday, Congress leader Avinash Pandey said the SP announced by-poll candidates without taking them into confidence.
SP’s unliteral move came as Congress allies in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, which are expected to go to the polls next month, signalled a harder bargain following the electoral setbacks in Haryana and J&K. The INDIA bloc gained momentum in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections with unexpectedly strong results. The bloc won 233 seats and restricted the Bharatiya Janata Party to 240, below the majority mark of 272.
Allies such as the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the Trinamool Congress, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, and the National Conference (NC) on Wednesday asked the Congress to introspect. They cautioned Congress against marginalising its partners. The Aam Aadmi Party called the Congress “overconfident” while reiterating there would be no alliance for the Delhi elections due early next year.
The BJP returned to power in Haryana, winning 48 out of the 90 seats while the Congress bagged 37 even as exit polls and surveys suggested a wave in its favour. The NC-Congress alliance won 49 out of the 90 seats in J&K. The Congress bagged just six of the 39 seats it contested. It was expected to do well in the Jammu region, where it was in a direct fight with the BJP. But it won just one seat there.
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