Lucknow, Oct 21 (PTI) The allies of both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the main opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) are engaged in intense lobbying and posturing over seat sharing for the upcoming November 13 byelections to nine seats in Uttar Pradesh.
With just four days left for the close of nominations on October 25, there is much speculation on the final nature of the seat-sharing pacts that both BJP and SP might enter with their allies.
Curiously, the Congress, so far at least, is still stuck on its “five seats” demand despite the Samajwadi Party's move to name candidates on seven of the nine seats, which means that now Congress' best-case scenario would be the two remaining seats - Khair in Aligarh and Ghaziabad.
“We had sought five seats from the SP as part of the alliance deal and we still stand by it,” UP Congress chief Ajay Rai told PTI.
He played down reports suggesting that Congress has decided to “opt-out” of UP bypolls in protest against being snubbed by the senior alliance partner.
“The high command would decide on all matters,” Rai said in a cryptic response to apparently stonewall further queries on the subject.
"Talks are going on," Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav told reporters in Karhal on Monday.
The political heft of the SP-Congress alliance was evident in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls when it limited the BJP to 37 seats, winning the remaining 43 seats in Uttar Pradesh, but the Haryana polls where the BJP turned the tables winning 48 seats out of 90 appeared to have impacted Congress’ bargaining ability.
The ruling BJP too is having issues with allies like the Nishad party. The regional party which claims the support of politically crucial riverine communities cited “precedence and alliance dharma” to back its "two seats" demand.
Nishad party chief and UP minister Sanjay Nishad is currently camping in Delhi to lobby support for his demand and has sought an audience with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP chief JP Nadda and the party’s national general secretary Sunil Bansal.
The Nishad party is seeking Majhawan and Katheri assembly seats, which it had contested on its symbol in the 2022 UP polls. It won in Majhawan but lost in Katheri.
The bypolls were necessitated as Majhawan’s Nishad party lawmaker Vinod Bind became an MP (on the BJP ticket) in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
“What we are seeking is logical and based on precedence as in 2019 Sangam Lal Gupta, then a lawmaker of BJP ally Apna Dal (S), became the Pratapgarh MP on BJP symbol.
"During the subsequent assembly byelection after Gupta became an MP, it was Apna Dal (S) that put up its candidate on the seat as part of the BJP-Apna Dal (S) alliance.
"In Katheri too despite losing in 2022 polls, we have a case though just as despite losing from Suar assembly seat of Rampur in 2022 polls, Apna Dal (S) candidate put up its candidate after Suar lawmaker Abdullah Azam’s disqualification caused the by-poll.
"There are many such examples, hence our demand,” a Nishad party insider said.
BJP’s other ally, the Rashtriya Lok Dal, is eyeing the Meerapur assembly seat on the premise that it had won the seat in the 2022 UP polls. The byelection was required due to the RLD candidate winning the Lok Sabha elections from Bijnor.
"We also want the Khair seat," an RLD leader said, making it obvious that the allies were engaged in some posturing.
The BJP’s other ally – Apna Dal (S) – is silently toeing the “NDA-will-win-all-seats” line to complete an interesting case analysis of tactics adopted by the allies.
Of the 10 seats due for bypolls, the Election Commission announced the schedule for just nine seats, leaving out the Milkipur seat in Ayodhya, apparently due to a legal technicality.
In the 2022 UP polls, of the nine seats — Meerapur, Ghaziabad, Khair, Kundarki, Karhal, Phulpur, Sisamau, Katheri and Majhawan — the SP won four against BJP's 3 while the RLD and Nishad party won a seat each.