UP Congress sees silver lining in poll defeat

Local leaders said that the SP could not garner Muslim votes and that the Congress can woo the voters in the near future with a change in strategy

AICC General Secretary and Congress Uttar Pradesh in-charge Priyanka Gandhi chairs a review meeting after party's debacle in recent Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Credit: PTI Photo

Congress, which could manage to win only two seats in the recent Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, may have been rendered electorally irrelevant in India's biggest state; yet, the grand old party claims that there is a silver lining for it in the state assembly polls results.

A section of the Congress leaders in the state was of the opinion that Samajwadi Party's (SP) failure to dethrone the BJP in UP despite getting the votes of over 80 per cent Muslims could create an 'opening' for the grand old party in the state in the next Lok Sabha polls due in 2024. "SP managed to get the support of an overwhelming majority of the Muslim population in UP yet it could not defeat the BJP... SP's failure can be our gain in the next LS elections as the Muslims may turn to us realising that only the Congress could take on the BJP at the national level," said a senior state Congress leader here while speaking to DH.

"All is not lost for us... the situation is salvageable... all we need is an energetic state leadership which can effectively take up people-centric issues and succeed in reaching out to our old vote bank, comprising Muslims, Dalits and Brahmins,'' the leader said.

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According to the sources in the party, several UP leaders suggested re-drawing the electoral strategy of the party in the state in the review meeting held in Delhi after the UP poll debacle. The leaders urged the party high command to appoint a state unit president who was acceptable to all. "We need a president (state level) who can take along ordinary party workers and leaders from different communities," said Anil Sonkar, a Congress office-bearer in the Gorakhpur unit of the party.

Congress, which had contested from 402 seats in the state, could manage to win only two seats and was wiped out from its traditional strongholds of Raebareli and Amethi also. State Congress president Ajai Kumar Lallu, a two time MLA, also lost his seat. Lallu has since resigned.

Congress had won 25 seats in the 2012 Assembly polls. Its tally fell to seven in the 2017 polls though it had then contested the elections in alliance with the SP. The vote percentage of the party, which stood at 6.25 per cent in the 2017 polls, declined to just over two per cent in this election.

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