Lucknow: Asserting that Congress would do better in Uttar Pradesh by going it ‘alone’ in the Lok Sabha elections, state party president Raj Babba r on Wednesday attacked both Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) alleging that the duo ‘underestimated’ the oldest political outfit of the country while announcing `Mahagathbandhan’. ‘Yes, we are out of power now for quite some long time in Uttar Pradesh but both SP and BSP had underestimated us by not even contacting us for talks on alliance and going in the public announcing their coalition”, asserted Babbar while showing his full confidence that they will now come out with more power and unity and show the two regional parties that their decision of keeping Congress away was `wrong’.”We have recently showed our power in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where we contested alone when both the BSP, SP and BJP were in the fray but we won and formed government”, cited Babbar. The same, he said, will happen in UP with the Congress winning maximum seats. The UP Congressmen are a busy lot on Wednesday in according a grand welcome to the party president Rahul Gandhi at the Amausi Airport here when he will go to his parliamentary constituency Amethi on a two-day visit.
‘In 2009 Parliament elections, the Congress won almost same number of seats that was bagged by the SP and BSP respectively even when we do not have government now for almost three decades in UP, so we firmly believe that the mandate and support of the people decided who is more powerful and who is weak”, further cited Babbar while reiterating that Congress just wanted an unity amongst the opposition just as they all wanted to defeat the BJP but the SP and BSP wrongly took it as their “weakness’. About talks with the other smaller parties for alliance in UP, Babbar said that they always welcome all those who wanted to join them to defeat BJP but they were already preparing to go and fight on all the 80 Parliament seats in the state. Babbar did not rule out the possibility of having a truck with newly formed Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (PSP) by Shivpal Yadav, after splitting the Samajwadi Party, claiming that many smaller parties are in touch with the central leadership for allying with the Congress but he was not having any knowledge about them.”
But our criteria would be simple that the party we will ally have a sole agenda to defeat the BJP and not a so called secular outfit,” he clarified. Interestingly, Babbar also did not rule out that the parachute droppers will not be welcomed in the Party and only old lieutenant will be given priority in ticket distribution. ‘The party always considers the old lieutenants while giving tickets but then senior leaders who left us or even those who now wanted to join us in our fight against the BJP all were welcome in the Congress fold but the tickets will be given only to those who have highest wining capability”, Babbar revealed while showing that many senior leaders are in touch with them and might soon join the Party. Babbar, who was here on Tuesday to review preparation of Rahul Gandhi’s rally in Lucknow on February 10 during which the Party president would kick off election campaign for 2019, claimed that the turnout in the Rahul’s meet would be a pointer to the party’s support that they were presently getting from the public which was desperate to dethrone Narendra Modi’s government.
