Congress to contest all 80 LS seats in UP on its own

Left out of the SP-BSP pre-poll tie-up in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress on Sunday announced that it would go it alone on all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the upcoming general election.

After a brainstorming session with senior party leaders, Congress general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Ghulam NabiAzad, however, said his party would accommodate any secular force that was capable of taking on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha polls.

The meeting of the Congress was held a day after the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) announced their alliance in Uttar Pradesh, sharing 38 seats each and leaving two seats for the smaller parties, besides leaving Rae Bareli and Amethi for United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi respectively.

Speaking to reporters here, Azad said, "The Congress will contest on all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and defeat the BJP."
To a question on whether the Congress will forge a coalition with any other political party, Azad said, "If any party is willing to accompany the Congress and the Congress feels that it can fight the BJP, then it will definitely be accommodated."
On his party being left out of the SP-BSP alliance, the Congress leader said, "We wanted that the Congress should have been a part of the Grand Alliance (against the BJP) in Uttar Pradesh. But if someone does not want to walk along, nothing can be done."
Replying to another question on the SP-BSP tie-up, Azad said, "The Congress workers are not at all disappointed on being left out of the alliance. On the contrary, they are saying the party would have had to contest on 25 seats, but now it would be contesting on all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Congress president Rahul Gandhi will hold at least 13 rallies in Uttar Pradesh."
Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress leader said, "Modi is not concerned about the country, he is bothered about his own chair. One of the biggest scams has taken place during the tenure of this government. The government has not gone for a probe. Not going for a probe does not mean that the scam has not been committed."