The Lok Sabha constituencies of Rae Bareli and Amethi have always stood with the Congress, barring a couple of occasions.

But in the 11 Assembly seats in these two districts, the party has been struggling for more than 25 years. This year, however, the Congress’ alliance with the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) has come as a blessing for the party to pocket these constituencies.

There seems to be an unwritten agreement between the Congress and SP that while the latter will not contest in the pocket-burough of the Gandhi family, and the former will not create any trouble for the SP in the Yadav belt of Etawah, Mainpuri and Kannauj.

However, a ‘friendly contest’ in four out of 10 seats may dampen the hopes of Congress. To top it, the unprecedented increase in BJP votes during the 2014 general elections is also worrying the party.

The Gandhi family’s trusted lieutenant, Kalyan Singh, who has been looking after party campaigns in the two districts for the past 50 years, is confident of a comeback. “We are benefiting from the alliance. Though we have been in power at the Centre, the lack of support from the State governments had taken voters away from us in the Assembly elections. Now, things will change,” Singh says.

Singh, a General Secretary of the UP Congress Committee, has worked with three generations of the party’s first family, and knows the constituency well. “This time the fight is against communal forces. Demonetisation has already alienated voters from the BJP. Our campaign is going strong despite the friendly contest in four constituencies,” he says.

Ajai Pal Singh, the Congress candidate in Unchahar constituency, claimed that he filed the nomination on the last day. He fights SP veteran Manoj Pande. “The fight in this constituency is against the BJP. They are fighting the election with money power,” he says. Utkarsh Maurya, son of Swami Prasad Maurya, the former BSP leader who recently joined the BJP, is the party candidate from the area.

Ajai Pal also claimed that the “friendly contest” will not hamper the alliance’s prospects in other constituencies. “It is a local issue. Both the alliance partners did not get enough time for adjustments,” he adds.

The Congress candidate from Amethi, Ameeta Sinh, was more forthright. “There is nothing friendly in this contest. I am fighting a criminal,” she says. The SP candidate in Amethi is Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, who was once dropped by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav from his Cabinet.

The BJP, on the other hand, smells a chance from the division in the alliance. “We will benefit because of this alliance and their problems. People now know that who is clean and who is not. They will defeat everyone who stood against demonetisation,” says Anita Srivastava, BJP’s candidate in Sadar constituency.

Virendra Yadav, SP’s Vice-President in Rae Bareli, feels that SP will win the four seats where a ‘friendly contest’ is taking place. “In fact, we should have got all the 10 seats. Congress has no base in the Assembly seats. We were ready for a compromise for the sake of fighting BJP, which is not a factor in this area and will not benefit because of problems in the alliance,” he added.

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