After Haryana Poll Shock, Congress Faces Samajwadi Party's Bypoll Snub

The fallout of the Congress' poor show in the Haryana election - which has included a stinging attack from allies Shiv Sena (UBT) - rumbles on, with the Samajwadi Party snubbing a seat-share request for by-polls to 10 Uttar Pradesh Assembly seats later this year.

Akhilesh Yadav's party - a high-profile member of the Congress-led INDIA bloc - has named candidates for six of the 10 seats, including nominating the Rashtriya Janata Dal's Tej Pratap Yadav from Karhal, a family stronghold the ex-UP Chief Minister won in 2022 but gave up after also winning a Lok Sabha seat .

The number - six of 10 seats - is significant - the Congress wanted to contest five of the seats, but the SP demurred, pointing to the two parties' performances in the April-June general election.

The SP won 37 of  62 seats it contested. The Congress contested 17 and won six. Given those numbers (the Congress also scored 109 fewer than the SP in the 2022 state poll) the offer was only three seats.

But the Samajwadi Party releasing its list of six candidates now - for a by-poll that has not yet been announced by the Election Commission - list doesn't just follow the Congress' horrid time in Haryana.

pic.twitter.com/U8j8UEF40W — Samajwadi Party (@samajwadiparty) October 9, 2024

In Haryana the two parties held talks over sharing of seats - as did the Congress with Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party - but no agreement was reached in either case, with much of the blame being placed on recalcitrant state leaders like the Congress' Bhupinder Hooda.

That failure to accommodate, as the Sena called it, is widely perceived as one of the reasons for the Congress losing a state that exit polls unanimously predicted it would win.

READ | "Arrogant, Overconfident": Allies Slam Congress Over Haryana Loss

But the two have been locked in talks over the UP by-polls for some time, underlining the rifts within an INDIA bloc that, in many cases, has failed to convince as a viable and sustainable non-BJP alternative.

The 10 UP by-polls, therefore, are a litmus test, at least for the Congress to continue as INDIA head.

The BJP has already begun planning, eager to claim as many of these seats as possible (not that it needs them to maintain its hold on the government) to build on momentum from Haryana.

There are still two Assembly elections left this year - Maharashtra and Jharkhand - with the all-important Delhi poll, where Mr Kejriwal's AAP will bid for a fourth straight win, scheduled for early next.

The SP's snub, meanwhile, has also been seen as a reminder of the Congress refusing to share seats for the Madhya Pradesh election. "... seems Congress doesn't want to partner with us", Mr Yadav had said.

As it did in Haryana this month, the SP then fielded its own candidates in Madhya Pradesh.

The Congress would be defeated in Madhya Pradesh and watch as the BJP flipped Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, losing three heartlands states in go to inviting scathing criticism from Mr Yadav.

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also attacked the Congress. Ms Banerjee's Trinamool also had seat-sharing disputes with the Congress - before the April-June general election. With an eye on poor past performances, she would not surrender more than two of the state's 42 Lok Sabha seats to her 'ally'.

READ | "Defeat Of Congress, Not The People": Mamata On BJP's 3-State Win

The Bengal Chief Minister had said then that while the Congress had indeed won Telangana, it could have swept the other two states "if not for votes being taken by INDIA parties".

NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.