'We Lost, But We Did Better than SP': Post Bypolls, Congress Claims to be the 'Only Opposition' in UP

The bypolls on seven assembly seats of Uttar Pradesh are over and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has retained its six out of seven seats while Samajwadi Party was able to retain their one seat. The UP Congress, however, failed to open their account in the by-elections but has claimed that their performance was better than the SP anyway.

Now after these results of the assembly by-elections, the Congress has accepted its defeat with ‘respect for the people’s mandate’ and has said it will do better in 2022. The party, despite not winning a single seat, stood at second position in Bangarmau and Ghatampur assembly seats.

Congress UP Chief Ajay Kumar Lallu told News18,”This is democracy, we respect the people’s mandate. But we gave it a very good fight. Our vote percentage has increased considerably than before. We ranked second on two seats and at number three at one seat. Our performance has been better than the Samajwadi Party, called the main opposition party in the state, which has 45 MLAs and those who have governed the state from 2012 to 2017.”

He said this proved that it was just Congress in the state’s opposition, currently. Lallu claimed the party had fought for the people from the ‘House to the road’ on the issues that concerned the youth, Dalit and backward classes, law and order, women safety.

“That’s why the public has expressed confidence. It was a by-election, the government had put in its full machinery and strength, used force. We have lost but we will not give up, we will take lessons from it in the coming days and strengthen ourselves as a strong opposition. We will fight the people’s fight and we will form a government in 2022,” he said.

The BJP won the by polls on assembly seats including Bulandshahr, Bangarmau, Ghatampur, Deoria, Tundla and the closely contested Naugawan Sadat seat, while the Samajwadi Party managed to retain power in Malhani as Lucky Yadav defeated independent candidate Dhananjay Singh by 4,632 votes in his late father Parasnath Yadav’s bastion.

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