An INDIA deal: How TMC got a seat in Uttar Pradesh, and Samajwadi Party a seat in Khajuraho

NOT MANY INDIA alliances have worked out as per plan, but at least one surprise deal appears to have been ironed out. As per this, the Samajwadi Party has set aside a seat for the Trinamool Congress out of its share in Uttar Pradesh, and in return, got a seat for itself from the Congress in Madhya Pradesh. Neither the TMC nor the SP have much of a presence in either of the states where they are now contesting.

While the TMC has never contested an election in UP, the SP has never registered a win in its attempts in Madhya Pradesh, including in the 2023 Assembly polls. The SP, however, has enjoyed warm relations with the TMC.

The constituency that the TMC will fight from in Uttar Pradesh is Bhadohi, from where it has announced former Congress MLA Lalitesh Pati Tripathi, the son of senior UP Congress leader Rajesh Pati Tripathi, as its candidate. Rajesh Pati, himself an ex-MLA, is the grandson of former UP CM Kamalapati Tripathi.

Lalitesh Pati Tripathi, who was elected from the Marihan Assembly seat on a Congress ticket in 2012, reportedly wanted to contest from neighbouring Mirzapur, from where he contested and lost in 2019 as a Congress candidate, getting just 8.25% votes. Shortly after, he defected to the TMC in 2021.

“But, considering the social equations, Akhilesh Yadavji found it better to field an upper caste from Bhadohi, and leave Mirzapur for an OBC candidate. Bhadohi Lok Sabha constituency appears to be a safe seat of the SP as, out of the five Assembly segments under it, the party won three in the 2022 Assembly elections,” said Tripathi.

In 2019, the BJP’s Ramesh Chand had defeated the BSP’s Rangnath Mishra from the seat by more than 40,000 votes. The BSP and SP were in alliance at the time. The caste logic had at