Singed by 2017 fiasco, SP, Congress turn a new leaf for 2024: joint panels to cadre synergy

Setting the ball rolling, the first coordination meeting of the INDIA allies Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress, held at the SP headquarters in Lucknow Monday, deliberated on their joint strategies and campaigns plans for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The meeting was the first of its kind, where SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav accompanied by his senior colleagues as well as the party’s district presidents and its former contestants from 17 seats – allotted to the Congress out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh – interacted with the Congress delegation led by its state unit president Ajay Rai and Legislature Party leader Aradhna Mishra.

Sources said a similar meeting of the leaders of the two allies would also be held soon for the remaining 63 seats from where the SP and its smaller allies would contest.

At their Monday meeting, the SP and Congress camps decided to set up the coordination committees of their leaders at the state and constituency levels to ensure better coordination between their grassroots workers. These panels would also iron out any differences that may crop up during their campaigning for the alliance’s joint candidates.

Sources said the leadership of both the SP and the Congress have learnt from their debacle in the 2017 Assembly polls when they had failed to capitalise on their alliance due to a lack of proper coordination between them. Despite then CM Akhilesh and top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi driving the alliance and holding several joint rallies, the cadres of the two parties had been at odds in many seats leading to their defeats.

There were then at least 14 constituencies where both the parties had fielded their candidates. As a result, both the allies had ended up contesting against each other,