Congress trying to forge alliance with smaller political parties in Uttar Pradesh

New Delhi, Jan 17: Now, the Congress is trying to forge an alliance with smaller political parties in Uttar Pradesh after it was denied by the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to be made part of the alliance. Party feels that this is important to keep electoral hopes of the Congress alive by forging alliance with smaller political parties in the state.

The Congress also feels that the alliance of the party with the smaller political outfits will be able to pose some challenge to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the alliance of the SP-BSP. Desperate Congress strategists are now looking at the possibilities of alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and angry NDA partners like Apna Dal (Sonelal) led by Ashis Patel and Suheldev Bharat Samaj Party led by Om Prakash Rajbhar.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi had a meeting with the senior party leader on the situation of Uttar Pradesh post SP-BSP alliance. After this internal meeting of the Congress, party general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Ghulam Nabi Azad has been dispatched to Lucknow for the second time in four days. Some other strategists have been asked to contact Apna Dal leader Ashish Patel and SBSP leader Om Prakash Rajbhar to make alliance a reality.

Azad's statement that the Congress is open to alliance with other political parties has been the clear indication from the grand old party. The Congress strategists are saying that the RLD might be trying to forge an alliance with the SP-BSP but this is also a reality that the Congress too has started talking to them. RLD leaders Ajit Singh and Jayant Choudhary both are in direct contact with the Congress leadership.

The Congress feels that if Apna Dal, SBSP and RLD join hands with the Congress, the contest will be triangular and in such a situation their alliance will be able to win good number of seats in the state.

The Congress sources said that there would not be any issue with the seat sharing with these political parties because the Congress announced contesting all 80 seats but party is well aware about its political reality in the state. Therefore it does not have any problem in giving six seats against its demand of four. Leaving seats as per the demand of other political parties will also not be an issue. Party sources said that it is ready to leave 15-20 seats for its prospective allies, the Congress will fight elections strongly on 60 seats.