Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Ahead of the next round of talks on seat sharing between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, SP general secretary Amar Singh on Friday said that the party was ready to concede only about a dozen seats to the Congress in Uttar Pradesh and ruled out 8220;friendly fights8221; during the Lok Sabha polls. He added that the party was not prepared to concede the seats it had won in the last elections to the Congress.
The SP8217;s decision would affect UP Congress leaders like Noor Bano, Salman Khursheed and Ratna Singh, as Singh said that the party was not going to let go seats like Rampur, Farrukhabad, and Pratapgarh where these leaders were staking their claims.
Opposing the Congress8217;s idea of 8220;friendly fights8221; in a few seats, he said, 8220;in such an eventuality, there will be friendly fights in 78 seats and the SP will extend support to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in Rae Bareli and Amethi respectively8221;.
Singh also made it clear that his party was not ready to vacate any of the seats won by it in the last Lok Sabha elections, including Allahabad, to the Congress. Besides, he said that it was for the Congress to think how effectively it could contest seats like Ghaziabad and Varanasi amid BJP8217;s reported plans to field Rajnath Singh and Murli Manohar Joshi from these seats.
Asked whether efforts would be made to rope in RLD in the SP-Congress alliance, Amar Singh said that RLD chief Ajit Singh could not be trusted. He added that Ajit Singh had supported the BSP in the recent trust vote after ensuring that the Congress-led government renamed the Amausi airport in Lucknow after his father late Chaudhury Charan Singh and later held talks with BJP8217;s Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
