LUCKNOW: The voices of dissent, if not all out rebellion, have started emanating from the Congress camp after the party sealed the seat-pact with the Samajwadi Party in Lucknow on Wednesday for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. As per the deal, the SP has spared 17 of the 80 seats for the Congress keeping rest 63 of itself and its smaller allies. However, the pack of 17 does not comprise of a number of seats like Farrukhabad, Bhadohi, Lakhimpur Kheri and Shravasti, which the Congress had demanded during the negotiations with the SP. Consequently, the senior Congress leaders like Salman Khurshid, who was part of party’s panel for negotiations, former MP Rajesh Mishra, Nakul Dubey (a BSP turncoat), former UPCC chief Brijlal Khabri and Naseemuddin Siddiqui, all are reportedly said to be left with a common feeling of discontent. While Khursheed, who won Farrukhabad twice in 1991 and 2009, and failed to fetch the seat in Congress quota of 17. He, sounding betrayed, appealed to the voters of the Farrukhabad on Friday to “support him” – as the seat has gone to the SP in the seat-sharing deal. Failing to hold back his hopelessness, Khurshid took to microblogging site X saying: “How much will my relations with Farrukhabad be tested? The question is not about me but about the future of all of us, about the future generations. Never bowed before the decisions of fate. I can break, I can’t bend. You promise to support me, I will keep singing songs.” After winning from Farrukhabad in 2009, the former Union minister contested from the same seat in 2014, as well, but finished fourth. In 2019 elections, he was again fielded from the same constituency but ended up third as Mukesh Rajput won the seat for the BJP. However, while reacting to the queries later, Khursheed said his social media post should not be “interpreted unnecessarily”, adding that he was a member of the Congress committee that held seat-sharing talks with the SP, and had no complaints. “We have got 17 seats. Be happy,” he quipped. Khursheed is not he only one. Congress’s former MP from Varanasi, Rajesh Mishra is also reported to be sulking and ready to explore options. “I am not a novice in electoral politics. I have been a member of state assembly, council and Lok Sabha as well. I wanted to contest the upcoming elections to win and had made all the preparation to be in fray from Bhadohi in eastern UP as I was sure to win the seat. But it has gone to the SP,” said Mishra while talking to media persons in Varanasi. He minced no words in admitting that with the present seat-sharing deal with SP, he might look for other options after consulting his people. Similarly, former UPCC chief and a BSP turncoat, Brijlal Khabri was seeking ticket from Jalaun but this seat was also not allotted to Congress in the negotiations. Moreover, the Congress wants to field Ravi Verma and Naseemuddin Siddiqui, respectively from Lakhimpur Kheri and Shravasti seats but has been denied both the seats. However, as per highly-placed sources in Congress, the party is still trying to negotiate Lakhimpur Kheri and Shravasti in lieu of any two of Ghaziabad, Barabanki and Mathura seats. The sources even claim that Congress top brass is engaged in parleys with Akhilesh Yadav. The seats allotted to the Congress under the deal include Amethi, Rae Bareli, Varanasi, Saharanpur, Amroha, Sitapur, Jhansi, Ghaziabad, Maharajganj, Fatehpur Sikri, Kanpur, Mathura, Deoria, Bansgaon, Bulandshahr, Prayagraj, and Barabanki. However, the Congress state president Ajay Rai feels that the state leaders had been preparing to contest elections on all 80 seats. “But we have got 17 seats under the I.N.D.I. alliance. At present, elections will be fought on these seats only,” he says. Meanwhile, it is not only UP where the Congress is fraught with discontent, Mumtaz Patel, daughter of late Congress stalwart Ahmed Patel, in Gujarat, said that she hoped that Bharuch Lok Sabha seat, which her father won in 1980 and 1984, will be part of the Congress’s quota after seat-sharing pact with AAP. Her comments came amid buzz that the Congress is likely to offer two seats to the AAP in Gujarat — Bharuch and Bhavnagar. Mumtaz, expressing her disappointment, wrote on X: “Deeply apologize to our district cadre for not being able to secure the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat in alliance. I share your disappointment. Together, we will regroup to make INC stronger. We won’t let Ahmed Patel’s 45 years of legacy go in vain.”
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