Congress unlikely to contest Uttar Pradesh assembly by-polls

Lucknow: Apparently unsure of winning any of the two seats offered by the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Congress was considering not to contest the forthcoming assembly by-polls in Uttar Pradesh though it would take part in campaigning in favour of the SP, its alliance partner.

According to the sources in the UP Congress, the grand old party, which had been offered Khair in Aligarh district and Ghaziabad assembly seats by the SP, had decided not to put up its candidates on these seats and return them to the SP.

Sources said that the decision to withdraw from the contest was prompted by the realisation that the party did not stand any chance of winning any of the two seats. ‘’It is better not to contest than contesting and losing,’’ said a senior UP Congress leader on Sunday.

Sources said that an official announcement in this regard might be made soon.

Congress had demanded five seats, including Phulpur and Manjhawa, but the SP offered it only two seats-Khair and Ghaziabad, which were considered to be BJP strongholds.

In the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, BJP nominee Atul Garg had defeated the Congress candidate Dolly Sharma by a huge margin of 3.36 lakh votes in Ghaziabad seat.

In the Ghaziabad assembly constituency Garg had led by over 60 thousand votes. In Khair seat also, the Congress nominee had secured only 0.6 per cent votes in the 2022 assembly polls in the state.

Sources said that the Congress did not want to ‘demoralise’ its workers, who were buoyant after the party’s impressive performance in the state in the LS polls. Congress had seven of the 17 seats it had contested.

The SP had already declared candidates from Sisamau, Manjhawa, Phulpur, Katehari and Karhal assembly seats.The by-polls on nine assembly seats were slated to be held on November 13.