SP threatens to oppose Congress in UP

Further toughening its posture, the Samajwadi Party on Saturday threatened to field candidates against the Congress in some Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, while the latter hit back saying it was ready to contest all 80 seats in the state.

Congress, which has already come out with its first list of 24 candidates for UP, also said it might out come out with another list of nominees in case the tie-up with SP did not materialise.

At the same time, SP said it will support Congress in constituencies where the latter appears stronger to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

"If they are putting up candidates in our sitting seats simply because they have candidates for some seats, then we can also think about doing so," SP general secretary Amar Singh told reporters a day after he accused the Congress of killing the alliance.

Singh, whose party is agitated by the announcement of 24 candidates by Congress in the state, said, "The alliance is broken but not from our side".

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh told mediapersons in Lucknow that in case the two parties failed to reach an alliance, his party was ready to contest on all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP and said another list of names might be announced soon.

The Congress' first list has already irked the SP, which charged the former with having written the obituary of the proposed alliance.

Refusing to comment on Amar Singh's statement in the media that the announcement of 24 candidates by the Congress has killed the alliance, Digvijay Singh said his party believed in face-to-face talks and not doing the talking through the media.

To a question, Digvijay Singh said talks were on with both SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav as well as Amar Singh. To a question, Digvijay Singh said the seat adjustment could not be based on the result of 2004 polls as the character of most of the seats in Uttar Pradesh has changed after the delimitation.

"It needs to be assessed afresh as the character of constituencies has changed since 2004", he said. "From the very beginning, we had requested the SP to leave some seven to eight seats for friendly contest," Singh said, adding that the SP had not agreed to it.

On the concept of friendly contest coined by Congress to overcome the hindrance on some seats where both the parties wanted to contest, Digvijay Singh said they were the constituencies where the situation was such that the contest should be confined between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party.

The Congress general secretary rejected SP's claim that its victory in recent Bhadohi assembly by-poll against the ruling BSP indicated the popular mood in UP and said the result of the by-poll was not reflective of the public mood.