Lucknow, Jul 5 (IANS): Over 250 Congress leaders, including 60 women, have opposed any sort of alliance with the Samajwadi Party in the Lok Sabha elections.

Expressing their reservations at a party meeting on Tuesday, the Congress members said that the alliance has not helped the party in Uttar Pradesh.

The meeting that lasted for over seven hours, was presided over by UP Congress President Brijlal Khabri. There was no central leader present at the meeting.

A party leader said, “The tie up with SP does not go beyond the leadership and the message does not travel down the line. An anti-SP also becomes an anti-Congress voter, which defeats the purpose of an alliance and instead of helping, harms our electoral prospects.”

Another leader said that Muslims have imposed their faith in the Congress in Karnataka and the party must live up to this expectation.

Meanwhile, the state president urged party workers to pool in their energies and prepare for the fight against the ruling BJP.

Interestingly, Congress in-charge of UP, Priyanka Gandhi did not even send a message for the party meeting. It has been exactly a year since Priyanka visited UP after the debacle in the 2022 assembly elections.

It may be recalled that it was Priyanka Gandhi, along with strategist Prashant Kishore, who had insisted on an alliance with SP in the 2017 assembly polls, despite reservations expressed by Rahul Gandhi.

The alliance proved to be a disaster and broke up soon after the polls.