India: UP: Calls grow for Congress to get tougher on SP, BSP

• After being kept out of the anti-BJP alliance in Uttar Pradesh by the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Congress is facing demands within the party for adopting a tougher posture against the two regional rivals as well as scouting for potential partnerships with other players.
• Former UP MPs and senior party members have conveyed to the party high command that the Congress needs to look more aggressive, attack BSP leader Mayawati-SP chief Akhilesh Yadav combine and get some local but formidable players such as Shivpal Singh Yadav and Suheldev Bahujan Samaj Party president Om Prakash Rajbhar on board.
• A former Congress MP, who did not wish to be identified, told ET, “Congress was taken by surprise. It had no plan. Forget Plan B, it did not have Plan A. It is time we pulled up our socks and looked aggressive.”
• An SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh without the Congress was exactly what the BJP wanted initially and the two regional parties have fallen into the ruling party’s design, the Congress said on 14 Jan 19.
• That the party was left out of the SP-BSP alliance would not affect its prospects and the Congress would contest with “full force”, it had said.
• A spokesperson on 14 Jan 19 tried to raise doubts over the longevity of the alliance, wondering whether it would last till the UP Assembly election.
• He said attempts are being made in all states to unite secular forces and avoid division of anti-BJP votes. “They (SP and BSP) did not express their desire to even talk to us,” he alleged.
• Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government may place the Other Backward Classes (OBC) sub-categorisation report before the state assembly in the upcoming budget session to signal its intention to split the 27% OBC quota in an attempt to counter the recently announced SP-BSP alliance for the general election.
• “Implementation of this report will be the most solid reply to the SP-BSP alliance,” UP’s backward classes welfare minister Om Prakash Rajbhar, who had commissioned the report, told ET.
• The CM has to approve the report and then it may be placed before the state assembly in the upcoming session,” said a senior BJP leader, speaking on condition of anonymity.

External Link: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/state-netas-want-congress-to-get-tougher-on-sp-bsp/articleshow/67534821.cms

External Link: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/sp-bsp-fell-into-bjp-pattern-by-announcing-alliance-in-uttar-pradesh-congress/articleshow/67531051.cms

External Link: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/voter-base-loyalty-crucial-for-sp-bsp-tie-up/articleshow/67519391.cms

External Link: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/up-govt-may-revisit-obc-sub-quota-report/articleshow/67535735.cms