Congress MP and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi has finally put his stamp of approval on the tie-up with the Samajwadi Party (SP) for the coming Lok Sabha elections.
LUCKNOW: Congress MP and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi has finally put his stamp of approval on the tie-up with the Samajwadi Party (SP) for the coming Lok Sabha elections. The arrangement got the approval at a conclave of the UP Congress Committee’s, which Rahul attended in Allahabad on Thursday.
This clears the decks for talks on the seat-sharing formula between the two parties, which would be decided at a meeting in New Delhi on August 30 and 31.
State Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi said the electoral alliance was the “need of the hour”. But Rahul Gandhi did not refer to the SP at all in his speech at the KP College Ground where he later addressed a public meeting.
Many in Congress said Rahul is just putting up with the arrangement due to certain political exigencies, though he is not too happy with it.
At the meeting, Rahul confined his speech to attacks on the Mayawati government. At one point, he drifted philosophically, as he described how today’s politicians “including myself” have distanced themselves from the common man.
“The UPA government has started several programmes for the poor… it has given ample funds to the states. But in UP, the poor and needy people are not getting the benefits of programmes like the loan-waiver, NREG and midday meal scheme,” he said.
“Lucknow tak paisa aata hai, lekin gaaon tak nahin pahunchta,” he commented.
Meanwhile, the tie-up with the SP may be a political reality now, but the formal approval of this new alliance has raised more questions than it answers. For instance, the role of Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) still remains to be decided.
While the Congress is insisting on taking the RLD on board, the SP leadership is opposing this, as it will also have to share seats with the Ajit Singh’s party. The RLD wants to contest at least eight seats, most of which are in western UP.
g_deepak@dnaindia.net
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