As Congress skips UP bypolls, one leader expelled for not letting his year-long efforts go to waste, staying put in race

Before the party decided against contesting Phulpur, it was eyeing the constituency with an eye on revitalising its base, believing that its strong support among the minorities gave it a better chance of winning the seat than the SP. The subsequent local rebellion illustrates the disappointment of party workers who have labelled the party’s move as “suicidal” for a party struggling to remain relevant in the state. They believe that the bypolls provided the party with the perfect opportunity to continue nurturing the signs of revival seen during the Lok Sabha elections in which the party won six of the 17 seats it contested.

Defending his decision despite the senior leadership’s directives, Yadav asked, “Why should the party completely surrender to another party and refrain from participating in elections?” Asked if any senior leader had encouraged him to enter the contest, Yadav refused to comment.

A former general secretary of the Allahabad University students’ union, Yadav is a longtime Congress worker and is known as a grassroots leader with considerable backing from the middle class. For the past three years, he has served as the president of the Congress’s Prayagraj (Gangapaar) unit and is also said to have connections with the Congress’s central leadership.

On learning of Yadav’s decision to file his nomination, state Congress president Ajay Rai initially removed him from the party post for going against the party’s decision. The UP Congress disciplinary committee also issued a show-cause notice to Yadav, saying his action amounted to indiscipline and directed him to respond within 24 hours. On not receiving a reply, Yadav was expelled.

Yadav’s decision to contest could end up hurting the SP’s chances in the election as it could divide the significant chunk of Muslim and OBC votes in the constituency. Of Phulpur’s 4.16 lakh voters, 90,000 are from Dalit groups, 70,000 are from the OBC Yadav community, 55,000 are Muslims, and 40,000 are Brahmins.

A local Congress leader said Yadav had been preparing for the Assembly election for a long time and had expressed his desire to contest the election to the state leadership of the party. Prayagraj Congress spokesperson Haseeb Ahmed said this showed there was an urgent need to build coordination between disgruntled party workers and senior leaders in the state.

The SP has fielded Mujtaba Siddiqui who has previously won three Assembly elections on a ticket of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), from Soraon in 2002 and 2007, and from Pratappur in 2012. He joined the SP two years ago, losing that year’s Assembly elections from Phulpur to the BJP’s Praveen Patel. The BJP leader’s election to the Lok Sabha from Phulpur has necessitated this bypoll.

SP’s media in-charge in Prayagraj Dan Bahadur Madhur said Yadav’s candidacy would not make a difference as “there is no Congress vote bank” in Phulpur. In 2022, Congress candidate Siddhanath Maurya polled only 1,626 votes, he said, adding that the SP was not focusing on the Congress rebel since the party had already taken action against him. “My candidate will sweep the election because all the calculations are in his favour,” Madhur said.

The BJP has nominated former MLA Deepak Patel who had won the 2012 state elections on a BSP ticket from Karachhana in Prayagraj district. Patel joined the BJP in 2018 and the following year his mother Kesari Devi Patel won the Lok Sabha election from Phulpur. BJP city president Rajendra Mishra said Patel would win the election by significantly increasing its 2022 margin of 2,732 votes. Among the 19 candidates in Phulpur is BSP’s Jitendra Singh, a businessman who is contesting his first election.