Uttar Pradesh is hotting up even before the outcome of Assembly elections in five states with three major players — BSP, Samajwadi Party and Congress — gearing up for the electoral battle next year. The Congress has decided to release its first list of candidates next month.
“Our first list of candidates would be released before May 31,” said Congress general secretary and in-charge of party affairs in UP Digvijay Singh here on Saturday.
He further said a Pradesh Election Committee of the party for UP would be constituted in the coming days and the 10 observers appointed by the AICC for UP have given their reports to party general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
Party observers sent to the state have been asked to give their reports directly to Mr Gandhi.
The Congress’ electoral strategy for UP would be different from Bihar. The Congress had fought the Bihar Assembly elections on its own with a calculation that this could help its revival but it did not work.
It has decided to have a pre-poll alliance with “like-minded parties” other than the SP, BSP and the BJP. This means the RLD led by Mr Ajit Singh and smaller parties could be prospective allies of the Congress.
The Congress fought the Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and West Bengal Assembly polls in alliance with UPA allies and like-minded parties.
In UP, the SP and BSP might have identified their candidates and announced some of them, it will be interesting to see whether people would vote once again for Ms Mayawati or Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav after being ruled by them several times in the last two decades.
The Congress is pegging its hope on floating voters and youths with a calculation that they would vote for change this time.
In that situation, the party would have to project a leader who can change the grammar of the campaign and make dent in the support base of the SP, BSP and the BJP.
The Congress is planning to make corruption as an issue to fix the BSP and SP leadership whose main plank would be polarisation along the caste lines. In fact, Union
minister Jitin Prasada today on Saturday asked social activist Anna Hazare to launch another campaign in Uttar Pradesh against the “corrupt” Mayawati government.
“This government is not concerned about its people and is putting all its efforts in making statues and parks. Where is all the money that it is getting from the Centre? People have the right to know where the money is being spent,” said Mr Prasada in Kanpur, according to an agency report. .