A seat-sharing agreement with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh has left many Congressmen fuming

After the Congress Party finalized the seat-pact with the Samajwadi Party in Lucknow on Wednesday for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, the party began to hear murmurs of disapproval, if not outright revolt. According to the agreement, the SP would retain 63 members for itself and its minor partners while allocating 17 of the 80 seats for the Congress. The Congress had requested other seats, including Farrukhabad, Bhadohi, Lakhimpur Kheri, and Shravasti, during the discussions with the SP, however they are not included in the pack of 17.

Senior Congressmen include Salman Khurshid, who served on the party’s bargaining panel, former MP Rajesh Mishra, BSP turncoat Nakul Dubey, former UPCC chairman Brijlal Khabri, and Naseemuddin Siddiqui are allegedly left feeling dissatisfied. In contrast, Khursheed, who won Farrukhabad twice (1991 and 2009), was unable to get a seat in the Congress’s seventeenth quota.

Feeling deceived, he urged Farrukhabad people to “support him” on Friday, pointing out that the seat has been transferred to the SP under the terms of the seat-sharing agreement. Khurshid, unable to contain his despair, posted on the microblogging platform X, asking how much his relationship with Farrukhabad would be put to the test. It is not about me; rather, it is about all of us and the next generations. Never submitted to the choices made by destiny. I am brittle; I am not flexible. You swear to help me, and I’ll keep singing songs.

The former Union minister ran from the same seat in 2014 after winning from Farrukhabad in 2009, however she came in fourth. He was again fielded from the same seat in the 2019 elections, however he finished third as Mukesh Rajput of the BJP won the seat. In response to the questions later, Khursheed said that his social media post should not be “interpreted unnecessarily” and mentioned that he had no complaints and that he was a part of the Congress committee that had discussions with the SP on seat sharing.

The number of seats is 17. Be content,” he joked. There are several besides Khursheed. Rajesh Mishra, a former Varanasi MP for the Congress, is reportedly pouting and prepared to consider his alternatives. “I have experience with electoral politics. I have also served as a member of the Lok Sabha, State Assembly, and Council. I was certain that I would win the seat, so I prepared myself to fight in the approaching elections from Bhadohi in eastern Uttar Pradesh. However, it has been handed over to the SP,” Mishra said in a Varanasi media interview.

Without holding back, he said that he could explore for alternative possibilities after engaging his team in light of the current seat-sharing agreement with SP. In a same vein, Brijlal Khabri, a BSP turncoat and former head of the UPCC, requested a ticket from Jalaun; however, Congress was not given this seat during the discussions. Furthermore, the Congress has been refused the right to field candidates for the Lakhimpur Kheri and Shravasti seats, respectively, by Ravi Verma and Naseemuddin Siddiqui. Nonetheless, the party is still attempting to negotiate Lakhimpur Kheri and Shravasti in substitution of any two seats in Ghaziabad, Barabanki, or Mathura, according to well-placed sources inside the Congress.

According to the reports, there are even discussions between Akhilesh Yadav and the senior brass of the Congress. Amethi, Rae Bareli, Varanasi, Saharanpur, Amroha, Sitapur, Jhansi, Ghaziabad, Maharajganj, Fatehpur Sikri, Kanpur, Mathura, Deoria, Bansgaon, Bulandshahr, Prayagraj, and Barabanki are among the seats that the Congress has been given under the agreement. Ajay Rai, the state president of Congress, believes that the state leaders were ready to run for office in all 80 seats.

However, under the I.N.D.I. alliance, we have 17 seats. Elections will currently only be held for these seats, he claims. The late Congress stalwart Ahmed Patel’s daughter Mumtaz Patel expressed her hope that the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat, which her father won in 1980 and 1984, would be included in the Congress’s quota following the party’s seat-sharing agreement with the AAP. However, the Congress is not only unhappy in UP.

Her remarks coincided with rumors that the Congress will likely give the AAP two seats in Gujarat, Bharuch and Bhavnagar. “Deeply apologize to our district cadre for not being able to secure the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat in alliance,” Mumtaz posted on X, expressing her sadness. I’m sorry you’re disappointed. We’ll come back together to strengthen INC. We’re not going to overlook Ahmed Patel’s forty-five-year legacy.