POLITICAL SCOOP: Shunned out of 'Mahagathbandhan', Congress to go solo in Uttar Pradesh

In a massive political scoop just few months before the Lok Sabha elections, sources have confirmed to Republic TV that the Congress' quest to oust BJP and PM Narendra Modi from power at the Centre has hit a major hurdle, as the party has been shunted out of the 'Mahagathbandhan' in Uttar Pradesh by the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

Sources have told Republic TV that following the meeting between Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati on Friday, in which they were inclined to give just two seats to Congress while discussing the seat-sharing plan, the grand old party of Indian politics has decided to go solo and fight the battle alone in most electorally significant state of the country.

This comes against the backdrop of the meeting between the two political bigwigs in UP, which was followed by a comment on the same lines by SP Vice President Kiranmoy Nanda. On Sunday, a couple of days after his party chief met BSP chief Mayawati, Nanda stated that Congress is an insignificant force in UP.

"In Uttar Pradesh, the Congress is an insignificant force, so we are not even thinking of including or excluding it."The SP-BSP alliance is the main force which will take on the BJP. The Congress might be there in one or two seats, it is for the Congress to decide what position it wishes to see itself in," he said.

READ: SP-BSP Strong Enough To Defeat BJP In UP, No Need For "insignificant" Congress: Samajwadi Party Vice President

The statement is sure to come not only as a major setback for the Congress, which has for the most part considered itself as the face of the Mahagathbandhan, but is also somewhat akin to an insult given that Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are the only Congress Lok Sabha MPs from Uttar Pradesh, representing Raebareli and Amethi respectively, meaning that the throw-away offer of two seats is essentially equivalent to nothing.

Only last month, sources had told Republic TV that a seat-sharing arrangement was struck between SP and BSP, something which seems true given the recent developments. It was then reported that Mayawati's party will be contesting in 38 seats, while Akhilesh Yadav's SP will contest 37 and three will be given to the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), leaving the two constituencies of Raebareli and Amethi to the Congress. The Samajwadi Party and the Congress had combined disastrously for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh elections. The BSP, meanwhile, had suffered an even worse humbling than the Congress in the 2014 elections, being wiped out from the Lok Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. The SP-BSP alliance has witnessed some success, however, in the Lok Sabha bypolls to Gorakhpur and Phulpur, taking over the constituencies vacated by UP CM Yogi Adityanath and deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya. 

READ: U.P Gathbandhan: SP, BSP Settle On 37-38 Seat-share Formula For 2019, Congress Bastions Conspicuous By Absence Amid Exclusion Reports: Sources