Hard bargaining for more seats has begun between the Congress and the Rashtriya Lok Dal for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
Although, both the parties are sending positive signals for fighting the elections together against the BSP, SP and the BJP, the smaller parties moving closer to the Congress are bargaining for more seats.
The Congress on Thursday made it clear that it would leave less than 50 seats to the Ajit Singh-led party.
Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi told a group of reporters here that the Congress will leave two to three dozen seats (24 to 36 seats) to the RLD.
According to the Congress insiders, a tie-up with the RLD will not help much as Jat votes are not transferable. They (jats) have never voted for the Congress.
The RLD, confined to western Uttar Pradesh, will obviously like to gain by the alliance with the Congress after the Samjawadi Party’s refusal to have a pre-poll alliance with it. The Congress had earlier planned to fight the Assembly poll on its own following its victory in the Lok Sabha elections. But, later it went on modifying its positions after realising that it cannot fight with the BSP, SP and the BJP simultaneously.
The Anna factor could be relevant in UP if the Congress decides to make corruption an issue against the Mayawati governmnt, they said.
The Congress has already released two lists of its nominees for the UP polls.
Meanwhile, The All-India United Muslim Morcha said Muslims will support only that political party which gives them reservation. “In the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections Muslims will favour only that political party which ensures them reservation,” AIUMM national president M.A. Siddiqui in Lucknow. He said the Samajwadi Party could have been benefited from the situation, but its supremo Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav has cheated the Muslims. “Not even once the SP supremo raised the issue of Muslim reservation in Parliament,” the AIUMM president said.
He also dubbed as a political move chief minister Mayawati’s letter to the Prime Minister for reservation for Muslims.