In the 2024 polls, the seats where Congress will contest include Rae Bareli, Amethi, Kanpur, Fatehpur Sikri, Bansgaon, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Maharajgandj, Varanasi, Amroha, Jhansi, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Sitapur, Barabanki and Deoria.Of the 17 seats, Varanasi is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, while Congress does not have much to expect from its stronghold, Amethi, owing to its “lack of attention.”In 2019, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the BJP, secured victory in 64 out of 80 seats, with the Samajwadi Party (SP) in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) securing 15 seats. The Congress party’s disastrous show led to it holding onto the solitary Rae Bareli seat.With Mayawati’s BSP deciding to go solo in 2024 and Jayant Singh’s RLD leaving the INDIA bloc to side with the NDA, the alliance between the SP, Congress and Azad’s ASP seems to be a less formidable alliance compared to the 2019 coalition.In 2019, the SP-BSP-RLD alliance appealed to a diverse array of voters, including Muslims, Yadavs, Jats, Dalits, and segments of OBCs.However, the absence of Jat and Dalit-lower OBC votes is conspicuous in the current arrangement, with Azad yet to demonstrate widespread support within the SC community, particularly as the majority of Jatavs remain aligned with Mayawati.
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