Lucknow: In a quid pro quo, Congress has decided not to field its candidate in biennial Legislative Council election of Uttar Pradesh. The Congress’ gesture is its ‘return gift’ to Samajwadi Party for supporting its two candidates – Pramod Tiwari and P L Punia – in getting elected to Rajya Sabha.
“The party has decided not to field its candidate in Council election,” chairman of UP Congress Committee communications department Satyadev Tripathi told PTI here on Sunday. “We have taken support of SP on two Rajya Sabha seats. Besides, we have to stop communal forces from horsetrading,” he added.
Tripathi said that SP was capable of winning seven seats on its own, but it has fielded eight candidates. “We do not have required numbers and RLD also is not helping therefore also we have decided to withdraw,” he said.
The UPCC leader said that AICC general secretary and UP incharge Madhusudan Mistry had announced that the party will field its own candidate and not support anyone else, but the fresh decision has been taken keeping in view the current situation and the high command has been informed about it.
Congress with 28 MLAs in the Assem-bly needed outside support of three MLAs to ensure victory of its candidate.(PTI)
