Lucknow, Oct 25 (PTI) A day after opting out of the November 13 bypolls in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress Friday said its leaders would hold "joint campaigns" along with ally Samajwadi Party which is contesting all the nine seats.
The Congress also said it is setting up coordination committees to ensure a smooth campaign.
"We are setting up coordination committees to ensure a smooth campaign on the lines of the one set up in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls," Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai told PTI.
This move comes in the wake of some confusion among the party's footsoldiers, many of whom admitted they were taken aback by the Congress's pullout move.
The Congress named seven-member coordination committees for each bypoll- bound constituency, each led by All India Congress Committee (AICC) functionaries and also featuring party's Lok Sabha members, MLAs as well state leaders.
These members in coordination with former MP and senior leader PL Punia will participate in coordination and poll meets.
"I will be campaigning for the INDIA bloc candidates and so will other leaders of the party," said Rai, who was present at the Delhi press conference on Thursday where the party announced plans to pull out of the electoral contest.
The Congress decision to skip the polls might have been forced by realpolitik, but at the ground level its leaders still admit the need to explain the context to the cadres, who were caught off guard.
That ground-level coordination was needed was evident on Friday as Suresh Yadav, the head of Congress's Prayagraj unit (Ganga paar or trans-Ganga) filed nomination from Phulpur, among the nine seats due for polls.
"Yes, I have filed two sets of nominations," Yadav told PTI.
He sounded to be in a hurry and didn't take any further queries even as Rai asserted the Phulpur nomination was filed due to "confusion" and Yadav would withdraw his nomination.
Despite Rai's 'all is well with alliance' assertion, it was clear that the Congress would now need to take the cadres into confidence on the decision to sit out of the polls that was dubbed a "face saving gesture" by Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary.
"It's true that our cadres wanted the party to contest polls but at the same time the larger goal is to ensure that the alliance keeps the BJP away and that is why the Congress after opting out of the polls has decided to fully back the Samajwadi Party," Congress election committee member and party veteran Punia told PTI.
At the Congress Committee office here too, the party's decision was subject of much debate as it followed after the SP-Congress alliance had successfully limited the BJP to 36 seats against the 43 seats (37 SP, 6 Congress) the alliance won in the state in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"There is no denying that we wanted the party to contest. But I think the Samajwadi Party's unilateral decision to declare candidates soured things. The seats that they left out for Congress were those where the SP knew it wouldn't win. That must have limited the options," a Congress veteran said while admitting that the decision to withdraw from the electoral contest after building a hype around the alliance needs to be communicated to the cadres at the grassroots to avoid a "Phulpur-like confusion".
Nadeem Ashraf Jaisi, an old Congress hand who has now joined AAP said, "The conflicting signals that Congress sent out must have confused the rank and file of the party. First you hold 'Samvidhan Bachao Sankalp Sammelan' in all the bypoll-bound constituencies, then give the impression that both the alliance partners would contest equal number of seats before suddenly withdrawing from the contest. This is very confusing."
The cadres were up for a contest but a cursory glance at the statistics showed that in 2022 state polls, the Congress had emerged fourth in both seats where Samajwadi Party was willing to accommodate them - Ghaziabad and Khair seat in Aligarh.
"We might not be contesting but the assertion that the alliance is still on and INDIA bloc is unitedly contesting the by-polls has given the impression that our candidates too might be contesting on SP symbol and even though this is untrue, for a party like us such confusion along with political barbs directed at us for quitting the poll battle is quite embarrassing," a party cadre told PTI.
AICC secretary Vidit Chaudhary has been named in-charge of Muzaffarnagar's Meerapur assembly coordination committee, while Saharanpur MP Imran Masood has been named observer.
Another AICC secretary Pradeep Narwal has been named in-charge of Kundarki assembly segment while Rakesh Rathor, MP and UP general secretary has been named observer.
Congress lawmaker and CLP leader Aradhana Mishra 'Mona' has been named in-charge of Ghaziabad assembly segment while Tanuj Punia, MP has been named observer.
Former minister Nasimuddin Siddiqui has been named in-charge of Khair assembly segment of Aligarh while state vice president Raj Kumar Rawat has been named observer for the seat.
AICC secretary Tauqir Alam has been named in-charge of Karhal assembly segment of Mainpuri while party leader Ramnath Sikarwar has been named observer.
Nilanshu Chaturvedi, AICC secretary, is the in-charge for Sisamau assembly segment in Kanpur Nagar and Amethi MP KL Sharma has been named observer.
Rajesh Tiwari, secretary AICC, has been named in-charge for the Phulpur assembly seat of Prayagraj while Prayagraj MP Ujjwal Raman Singh has been named observer. For Katehari assembly segment of Ambedkarnagar the party has named AICC secretary Satya Narain Patel as in-charge and Keshav Chand Yadav, vice president UPCC as observer.
For Majhawan assembly seat in Mirzapur the party has named former lawmaker Amresh Chandra Pandey as in-charge and another former lawmaker Sadal Prasad as observer.
Rai said Aradhana Mishra 'Mona' would be present at one such meet to be held in Ghaziabad on Saturday.