Congressmen in UP seek safer options with 2014 in sight

Several of Congress’ members of Parliament from the key battlefield state of Uttar Pradesh are seeking safer seats or even refuge in other political parties ahead of the general elections, a trend that may increase with the party’s drubbing in four of the five recent assembly elections.

Cricketer-turned-politician Mohammed Azharuddin, the Congress MP from Moradabad, has already asked the party high command to field him from another constituency, preferably Mumbai-south-central which is held by the party, a senior leader told ET. Mumbai’s parliamentary constituencies are traditionally considered safe seats for the Congress and its alliance partner, Nationalist Congress Party.


The party’s MPs from Akbarpur, Bareilly and Sultanpur are also on the lookout for safer options, said the leader cited earlier, requesting anonymity. Akbarpur MP Raja Ram Pal, who was recently given party responsibilities and made a secretary in the All India Congress Committee, had switched to the Congress from Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party. Bareilly MP Praveen Singh Aron, a quiet and understated parliamentarian, is also said to be weighing his political options, as is the Sultanpur MP Sanjay Singh, who is being wooed by the BJP to be pitted against Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Amethi.

Disquiet among the Congress MPs has grown since the party’s drubbing in four of the five states that went to the polls recently, the leader said, adding that reports from the ground suggesting that the BJP could win 30-40 of the 80 seats had made matters worse. “It would be a very big thing if we can retain the present 22 seats in Uttar Pradesh. Our internal calculations show that getting 10 from the state would also be difficult,” the leader said.

In the 2012 assembly elections, the Congress had lost eight of the 10 assembly segments in Raebareli and Amethi, the parliamentary constituencies held by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul.

Congress general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, Madhusudan Mistry, has been holding intensive consultations with all MPs from the state, a leader said, adding that the party would like to stitch an alliance in the state to improve its sliding political graph. But the Congress does not have too many options in this respect. “At best we could have an alliance with Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal. But that will not get us major political gains. After Muzaffarnagar riots, RLD’s influence is waning and it will be difficult for Ajit Singh to hold on to even his seat,” the leader said.