Congress gets lifeline in UP as it gets decisive lead in 7 out of 17 seats it's contesting

Lucknow, Jun 4 (PTI) The current Lok Sabha elections can be considered no less than a lifeline for the Congress, which has been looking for its lost political ground in Uttar Pradesh for the last three decades. The party has taken an almost decisive lead in seven out of 17 seats it is contesting in the state.

The Congress, which performed its worst in Uttar Pradesh in the last Lok Sabha elections held in 2019 and then in the assembly elections in 2022, contested 17 out of 80 seats in the state under the INDIA bloc in the Lok Sabha elections this time.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi has taken a decisive lead of more than three lakh votes in Rae Bareli seat. In Amethi, another political stronghold of the Nehru-Gandhi family, party candidate Kishori Lal Sharma is leading by more than one lakh votes over BJP's Smriti Irani.

The Congress is leading by more than one lakh 77 thousand votes in Barabanki, more than 96 thousand in Saharanpur, about 78 thousand votes in Sitapur, more than 35 thousand in Allahabad and more than 14 thousand votes in Amroha.

These trends are encouraging for the Congress. On the 17 seats the party is contesting, the party stood second on three of these seats while its deposit was forfeited on 11 seats in the last Lok Sabha elections with the party getting only 6.4 per cent votes.

The party secured victory only in Rae Bareli. The biggest setback for the party was in Amethi where former Congress president Rahul Gandhi lost to Smriti Irani by more than 55 thousand votes.

The Congress has been out of power in the state since 1989. The party's support base has continuously declined and its condition worsened in the 2022 state assembly elections. In that election, the Congress had to be content with only two seats -- Rampur Khas and Farenda -- with only 2.33 per cent votes.

The Congress and SP also fought the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections together, but they had to face a crushing defeat. However, this time the alliance seems to be performing better.

The current Lok Sabha elections can also be very encouraging for the SP, which lost the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the 2017 and 2022 assembly elections.

The SP, which is contesting 62 seats in the state, is leading on 35.

This time the Congress has bet on Imran Masood, who was expelled from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), for Saharanpur seat.

The Congress had given ticket to sitting MP Danish Ali, who left the BSP, from Amroha seat, which has a sizeable Muslim-Dalit population. Apart from this, the party had fielded Shivram Valmiki from Bulandshahr, Dolly Sharma from Ghaziabad, Mukesh Dhangar from Mathura, Ramnath Singh Sikarwar from Fatehpur Sikri, Rakesh Rathore from Sitapur, Alok Mishra from Kanpur, Pradeep Jain Aditya from Jhansi, Tanuj Punia from Barabanki, Ujjwal Raman Singh from Allahabad, Virendra Chaudhary from Maharajganj, Akhilesh Pratap Singh from Deoria, Sadal Prasad from Bansgaon while state Congress president Ajay Rai is contesting from from Varanasi seat. PTI SLM CDN CDN MNK MNK