State politics no longer interests them and majority of the Congress legislators in Uttar Pradesh are keen to contest the Lok Sabha elections.
A number of them have already told the party leadership and have even started working in their respective constituencies. Considering the shortage of strong candidates that the Congress faces in Uttar Pradesh, most of these legislators are likely to be allowed to contest the Lok Sabha polls.
Former UPCC president Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who is the Congress MLA form Lucknow Cantonment seat is a claimant for the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat. She had ranked second in the last Lok Sabha elections and is confident of wresting this prestigious seat from the BJP.
A rival group within the Congress is, however, opposing her candidature form Lucknow and says that she would make a better candidate from Allahabad which is her hometown.
Another Congress MLA keen to try his luck in the Lok Sabha polls is Akhilesh Pratap Singh, who represents the Rudrapur seat in the state Assembly. Akhilesh, who is known for his proximity to the Gandhi family, is eyeing the Deoria Lok Sabha seat.
Mr Vivek Kumar Singh, a former minister and Congress MLA from Banda, is also keen to contest the Banda Lok Sabha seat this time and Nadeem Javed, a first time MLA from Jaunpur, is another one who is determined to contest the Jaunpur Lok Sabha seat.
Congress MLA from Baghra, Pankaj Malik, is all set to stake his claim on the Muzaffarnagar seat and his supporters insist that his victory is a foregone conclusion because the caste equations are in his favour.
Other Congress MLAs keen to contest the Lok Sabha elections are Vivek Bansal from Aligarh, Laliteshpati Tripathi from Mirzapur and Ruby Prasad from Robertsganj seats.
UPCC president Nirmal Khatri candidly admitted that barring six or seven MLAs, all the party legislators are keen to contest the general elections.