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In fresh indication of its distancing from the Congress ahead of the 2024 general elections, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has dropped hints that it might field a candidate from Amethi seat, where the SP has given a walkover to the Congress in the past four polls.
After a visit to Amethi Sunday, SP president Akhilesh Yadav tweeted in Hindi: “I was saddened to see the plight of poor women in Amethi. VIPs have been winning and losing this seat, yet if the condition is like this here, then what to say about the rest of the state? Next time Amethi will not elect big people but people with big hearts. The SP takes a pledge to eradicate poverty in Amethi.”
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had lost the family pocket-borough to senior BJP leader and Union minister Smriti Irani. With Rahul making his way to Parliament via the Wayanad seat in Kerala, Irani has assiduously nurtured Amethi.
“The Congress lost Amethi last time and hence it is no longer a seat of the Congress. The BJP won and now it is a seat of the BJP,” SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary argued, adding that the SP will defeat the BJP in the 2024 polls.
Earlier, the SP had said that it was not looking to tie up with any big party “such as the Congress and BSP” for 2024, and would continue with its existing partner Rashtriya Lok Dal.
An SP leader in Amethi said that during his visit to the district, Akhilesh sought details on the political scenario in the Lok Sabha constituency. “He asked about the social and caste equations,” the leader said, adding this could be the first step towards selecting a candidate for the seat.
The SP last contested the Amethi Lok Sabha seat in 1999, when Sonia Gandhi was fighting her first ever election, from the seat. While Sonia got 67 per cent of the votes, SP candidate Kamarujjama Fauzi got just 2.67 per cent of them, and finished fourth.
The Congress is hoping to put together a united Opposition front ahead of the 2024 polls, although the stumbling block is a decision on who would lead it. Like others, the SP has been testing the ground, and was most recently part of the letter sent to the PM on the “misuse” of Central agencies — the Congress was not a signatory. Earlier, SP and Congress too participated in a rally held by DMK.
In the 2004 Lok Sabha, the SP gave a walkover to Rahul Gandhi, in what was his first election. Rahul won.
The SP, however, fielded a candidate against Sonia, who moved to another family bastion, Rae Bareli, that year. While she won, the SP candidate stood runner-up.
In 2009 and 2014, the SP did not field a candidate in either Amethi or Rae Bareli, with Rahul and Sonia winning both times respectively from there.
In 2019, when the SP fought the Lok Sabha elections in a tie-up with the BSP and RLD, the alliance did not field a candidate in Amethi or Rae Bareli. While Sonia won her seat, Rahul lost from Amethi to Irani.
SP spokesperson Chaudhary said they had not taken a call on the party’s plans regarding Rae Bareli yet.
The Congress had reciprocated the SP’s gesture in giving its two top leaders a walkover by not fielding candidates against members of SP founder leader Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family in Lok Sabha elections.
In 2014, when Mulayam (who passed away last year) contested from two seats, Mainpuri and Azamgarh, the Congress did not field a candidate against him in Mainpuri but contested in Azamgarh. In Kannauj, the Congress gave a walkover to Akhilesh’s wife Dimple Yadav.
In 2019, the Congress did not field any candidate against Mulayam in Mainpuri, Akhilesh in Azamgarh, Dimple in Kannauj, and Akhilesh’s cousin Akshay Yadav in Firozabad. While Mulayam and Akhilesh won, Dimple and Akshay were defeated.
A UP Congress leader said, “Whenever the SP did not field candidates against Congress leaders in Amethi and Rae Bareli, the Congress too did not field candidates against Yadav family members.”
On Akhilesh indicating the SP might contest Amethi in 2024, the leader said, “That appears a posturing exercise ahead of the polls. We are hopeful of Opposition unity in the elections.”
The Congress is hoping to put together a united Opposition front ahead of the elections, though the main stumbling block is a decision on who would lead such a grouping. Like other Opposition parties, the SP has been testing the ground, and was most recently, part of the letter sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the “misuse” of Central agencies (the Congress was not a signatory). Earlier, the SP participated in a rally held by the DMK where Opposition leaders from across several parties, including the Congress, were present.
The SP and Congress had entered into a pre-poll alliance in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, with Akhilesh and Rahul running a joint campaign with the slogan “UP ke ladke (UP’s boys)”. However, the alliance had failed to make any impression, with the SP losing power to the BJP.
The SP had contested 311 seats and won only 47, while the Congress had fought in 114 and got seven. Amidst the lack of proper coordination between the two parties, there were several seats in which both the SP and Congress had fielded candidates.
Earlier, the SP supported Congress-led UPA governments at the Centre in 2004 and 2009.
