The SP leader Rajendra Chowdhury confirmed that the seat belongs to his party and that their candidate would contest from it. Now, it was up to the Congress leaders to decide their course of action, said Chowdhury.
While the Young Turks, Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi, are ready to take their road show beyond Lucknow, their parties, Samajwadi Party and Congress, are still struggling on the division of seats.
Both Yadav and Gandhi will start their joint campaign from Friday. The first rally will be held in Agra, followed by the ones in Kanpur and Meerut. The leaders are also expected to unveil a joint programme for taking their campaign forward. Sources have confirmed a meeting between Yadav and Prashant Kishore, the election strategist of the Congress party.
While the joint campaigning may be going on smoothly, the two allies have not reached any consensus on some crucial seats.
In the state capital, SP candidate Ravidas Mehrotra filed his nomination from Lucknow Central seat. A day later, Congress candidate Maroof Khan filed his papers from the same seat. Now, the alliance candidates have become rivals on this seat.
The SP leader Rajendra Chowdhury confirmed that the seat belongs to his party and that their candidate would contest from it. Now, it was up to the Congress leaders to decide their course of action, said Chowdhury.
Congress spokesperson Virendra Madan says the local unit has informed the leadership in Delhi about the situation, and whatever they decide would be followed.
Lucknow goes to polls on February 11 and the last day for withdrawal of names is February 3. Either party will have to withdraw its candidate otherwise the two allies would be pitted against one another on the polling day.
The picture is not clear on the 10 assembly constituencies in Rae Bareli and Amethi either.
Both Rae Bareli and Amethi, the parliamentary constituencies of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi respectively, have five assembly segments each. Of these, Jagdishpur and Tiloi seats are with the Congress, while the SP represents seven seats. Interestingly, Congress candidates were on the second position on four of these seats won by the SP last time.
The Rae Bareli Assembly seat is with Akhilesh Singh, who contested last election on a Peace Party ticket. This time, Singh is fielding his daughter, Aditi Singh, on a Congress ticket.
Eyeing the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Congress wants to field its candidates on all the 10 Assembly seats.
Samajwadi Party has already announced the name of its sitting MLA, Gayatri Prajapati, from Amethi seat. Prajapati is also a minister in the Akhilesh Yadav cabinet and is considered close to Mulayam's second wife, Sadhna Gupta. Prajapati's influence was displayed when Akhilesh expelled him from the cabinet, but within a week, he had to backtrack on his decision.
Senior Congress leader Sanjay Singh's wife, Amita Singh, lost this seat to Prajapati by nearly 9,000 votes in the last Assembly elections.
After the alliance with SP, Congress wants to repeat Amita Singh from the seat. Rumours are rife that if Akhilesh Yadav does not withdraw Prajapati's candidature, Amita Singh may contest independently.
Making the fight more interesting, BJP has fielded Sanjay Singh's first wife Garima Singh from Amethi.
"With SP's support, Congress has the possibility of winning all 10 seats," says a Congress leader. He said that Congress's prospects in general elections would improve if it is able to win all Assembly seats in Rae Bareli and Amethi.
Similar is the case with the Unchahar seat from where the SP has finalised the name of its sitting MLA and Minister Manoj Pandey.
The alliance is also locked in a tussle over several other seats in Mathura, Aligarh, and Bijnore, where both Congress and SP candidates have staked their claims.
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