New Delhi, Oct 24 (IANS): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National Spokesperson Ajay Alok on Thursday ridiculed the INDIA Bloc over the divide within for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh bye-elections and said that it was a 'wake-up call' for the Congress party.
After months of a deadlock over seat-sharing for the UP bypolls, the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) recently offered just two seats to its national ally and on Wednesday night declared that all the INDIA Bloc nominees will contest elections on the ‘Bicycle’ symbol.
The Congress is yet to react on being cold-shouldered but the general perception is that it may stay away from the elections rather than accepting the ‘insult’ meted out to it.
Ajay Alok, speaking to IANS, mocked the ‘opportunistic’ alliance and said that their ‘real face’ stands exposed now.
“They boasted about making the country ‘BJP-mukt’ but Samajwadi Party has made Uttar Pradesh ‘Congress-mukt’. It’s time for the latter to think and introspect about its stature in the alliance,” he said.
The bypolls got necessitated because seats fell vacant after sitting legislators got elected as MPs in the recent Lok Sabha polls.
The bye-election is being held for the Sisamau seat, due to the disqualification of the Samajwadi Party MLA Irfan Solanki because of his conviction in a criminal case.
A total of nine Assembly seats are set to go for voting in the bye-election slated for November 13.
They are Meerapur, Khair, Katehari, Sishamau, Majhawan, Ghaziabad, Kundarki, Karhal and Phulpur.
The bypoll date for the Milkipur Assembly seat has not yet been announced because of an election petition pending in court.
In the recently held Lok Sabha elections, the Congress and SP contested together and put up their best-ever show in UP by winning six and 37 seats respectively.
Ajay Alok also taunted the Congress party and the Gandhi family in particular for allegedly insulting party President Mallikarjun Kharge during Priyanka Gandhi’s nomination filing for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat.
“It’s a matter of pity and sadness that Kharge was made to face such humiliation. Despite him being 80-years-old, he was made to stand at the door while the whole Gandhi clan sat inside,” he professed.