Lucknow: As the BJP embarked on internal firefighting to douse flames of dissent in its Uttar Pradesh unit, the I.N.D.I.A. alliance partners Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) were close to sealing their seat sharing deal to contest the upcoming assembly bypolls on ten seats in the state.
According to the sources, the SP could contest seven seats leaving the remaining three to the Congress.
''The seat sharing talks are still on.....it is expected to be finalised very soon,'' said a senior SP leader here on Friday.
The ten seats where bypolls would be held included Milkipur, Karhal, Mirapur, Kundarki, Ghaziabad, Khair, Phulpur, Katehari, Majhwan and Shishamau. Of these nine seats fell vacant after resignations of the MLAs from there on becoming members of the Lok Sabha. One seat fell vacant after SP MLA Irfan Solanki, who represented it, was convicted in a case by a court and was subsequently disqualified.
SP had won Milipur, Karhal, Shishamau, Katehari and Kundarki in the 2022 assembly polls. BJP had emerged victorious on three seats while its alliance partners Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Nishad Party (NP) had won one seat each.
Sources said that the SP would be contesting all the five seats it had won in 2022 and two more from the remaining five. It could contest Majhawan and Mirapur seats and in that case the Congress would be contesting Ghaziabad, Khair and Phulpur seats. Sources, however, said that Congress wanted the Mirapur assembly seat as part of the seat sharing deal.
UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath had deployed virtually an army of ministers on the seats going to the bypolls. The saffron party has deployed three ministers on eight of the ten seats. These ministers had been asked to camp in their allotted assembly constituencies, coordinate with the local party leaders and workers and ensure victory.
BJP has set its eyes on Milkipur, which is a part of Faizabad LS seat and is closer to Ayodhya, and Karhal seat, which fell vacant after SP president Akhilesh Yadav, an MLA from there, was elected to LS from Kannauj seat. BJP BJP has deployed four ministers in Milkipur and Karhal seats. SP candidate Awadhesh Prasad had defeated BJP nominee Lallu Singh to wrest the Faizabad seat in the recent LS polls.