Lok Sabha polls: Congress UP list a mix of turncoats and loyalists

Lucknow: After a string of poor electoral performances stretching to more than a decade in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress is seemingly banking on both turncoats and loyalists to turn the tables in its favour in the coming Lok Sabha polls.

The grand old party, which came out with its first list of nine candidates for India's largest state on Saturday, has named six party veterans and three defectors to take on the contestants of the ruling BJP and its allies.

Uttar Pradesh, home to over 234 million people, sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha. Congress has fielded former MLA Imran Masood from Saharanpur for the third time. He contested the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls as Congress nominee but failed to taste success. He shifted loyalty and joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) briefly.

After failing to get a ticket in the 2022 assembly election, Masood left SP and joined Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). However, he was expelled from BSP for anti-party activities after which he came back to the Congress fold in October last year.

The Congress has nominated one of its old faces and Gandhi family loyalist, Akhilesh Pratap Singh, also a party spokesman, from Deoria. Singh is a one-time MLA from Rudrapur seat in Deoria district.

He is considered close to party stalwarts Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra. It is being said that due to his allegiance to the Gandhi family, he was promoted at a national level from being the party's chief spokesman in Uttar Pradesh.

The party has pitched its UP unit president Ajay Rai against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi. Rai had contested the Lok Sabha poll thrice from Varanasi, once on SP ticket and twice as a Congress nominee, but remained in the third position all the time.

Tanuj Punia, who is the son of former MP and senior Congress leader P L Punia, has been named as the Congress constant from Barabanki. An engineer Tanuj earlier contested two assembly elections from the Jaipur seat and the 2019 Lok Sabha poll from Barabanki parliamentary constituency as a Congress candidate.

It may be noted that PL Punia, a former bureaucrat, won from Barabanki seat in the 2009 general elections. However, Tanuj is yet to taste success from Barabanki.

For the Jhansi seat, Congress is once again banking on former Union Minister Pradeep Jain Aditya. A two-time MLA from the Jhansi assembly seat, Jain successfully contested the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from Jhansi and was elevated as a Union Minister. But he lost in 2014 to BJP veteran Uma Bharati.

MP Danish Ali, who has entered the race from Amroha, had a long stint in BSP before switching to the Congress a few days back. Ali had in fact won the Lok Sabha poll in 2019 from the same seat on a BSP ticket.. He was suspended from BSP on charges of not following the party line and subsequently crossed over to the Congress.

Alok Mishra, who has been named as the Congress candidate from Kanpur, has a long association with Congress. He joined that party in the early 1980s and had served in different posts in the UP Pradesh Congress Committee along with being a member of the AICC for a long time.

The party has chosen former minister Sadal Prasad from Bansgaon (Scheduled Caste) seat. Before joining Congress Sadal was a veteran leader of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and served as a minister in the Mayawati cabinet in the state. He had unsuccessfully contested from Bansgaon seat twice.

From Fatehpur Sikri seat the party has fielded former armyman Ramnath Sikarwar. He contested the 2022 assembly election from Kheragarh but lost to Bhagvan Singh Kushwaha of BJP.

It may be noted that in UP Congress is contesting Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP. As a part of seat sharing SP has given 17 seats to Congress, including the Gandhis' traditional seats Amethi and Rae Bareli. Congress is yet to announce candidates on 8 seats.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Congress won 21 seats from UP, but the number sharply fell to two in 2014, when Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi won from Rae Bareli and Amethi respectively.

The Congress performed even worse in 2019, when Sonia Gandhi finished as the only victorious candidate from the state. Even Rahul Gandhi bit the dust from Amethi and managed to continue as MP courtesy his win from Kerala's Wayanad.