UP deal done but toughest stretch awaits SP, Congress: Working out Lok Sabha battle plan

With the alliance in place in Uttar Pradesh, the next challenge for the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress will be ensuring coordination on the ground for the campaign and transferring votes to each other in the Lok Sabha polls.

While the first indications would have been encouraging for the Opposition parties — given that they failed to make their last tie-up, for the UP Assembly polls in 2017, work — their local leaders said they had yet to receive instructions from the top about how to go about making certain that the alliance works on the ground.

First, on February 25, SP leaders in Gonda visited the Congress’s district office and pledged to work jointly in support of SP candidate Sherya Verma, the granddaughter of former Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma. This week, the SP’s Ambedkar Nagar candidate Lalji Verma visited the Congress district office and held a meeting there. Likewise, the SP’s Faizabad candidate and sitting MLA Awadhesh Prasad visited former state Congress president Nirmal Khatri’s home in the district to seek his support.

The Congress has so far not declared candidates for the 17 seats it has been allotted but over the past week its probable candidate from Barabanki, Tanuj Punia, has met various SP leaders such as former state ministers Arvind Singh Gope and Rakesh Kumar Verma. Punia also visited the district office of the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) to meet its local office-bearers.

Candidates from both parties are carrying out these exercises to meet the challenge of bringing their cadre together on one platform and ensure they gel with each other to avoid any confusion or embarrassment as had prevailed in 2017 when the top leadership of the SP and the Congress forged an alliance but their local