Congress on comeback trail in Uttar Pradesh, wins 21 seats

May 16th, 2009 LUCKNOW - Surprising everyone but its staunchest supporters, the Congress Saturday appeared headed for its biggest comeback in Uttar Pradesh with trends indicating that it would win 22 seats of the state's 80. Powered by some indefatigable campaigning by general secretary Rahul Gandhi, the Congress was poised to make a huge leap from the nine seats it had won in 2004.

May 16th, 2009 LUCKNOW - The scene at the party headquarters here said it all. While it was celebrations and euphoria at the Congress office, the Samajwadi Party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) offices in the Uttar Pradesh capital wore a deserted look Saturday evening.

May 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Congress leaders were jubilant Saturday after making a comeback in the politically significant state of Uttar Pradesh, where it was leading in 22 of 80 seats, with many giving credit to their general secretary Rahul Gandhi. 'Uttar Pradesh is a political force,' Rahul Gandhi, who represents Amethi in the state, said at a press conference here as it became evident that the Congress was going to confound predictions and improve substantially on its nine Lok Sabha seats in 2004.

May 16th, 2009 LUCKNOW - Surprising everyone but its staunch supporters, the Congress - powered by some indefatigable campaigning by Rahul Gandhi - appeared headed for its biggest comeback in Uttar Pradesh, the state that sends the maximum of 80 MPs, with trends indicating a huge leap for the country's ruling party. After three hours of counting, Congress was leading in over 20 seats, Samajwadi Party was also leading in 20 seats, the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), that had proclaimed its potential of winning 40 to 50 seats, was leading in 21 seats while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was trailing behind with leads in only 15 seats.

April 30th, 2009 LUCKNOW - The Congress is set for a revival in Uttar Pradesh and will win at least 20 seats from the state in Lok Sabha polls, central minister and party candidate Sri Prakash Jaiswal said Thursday. 'This time the Congress is certainly going to expand and revive itself in the state,' Minister of State for Home Jaiswal told reporters after casting his vote at the Pokarpur polling booth in Kanpur, from where he is seeking re-election.

April 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will make major gains in Uttar Pradesh, bagging around 40 seats, while the Samajwadi Party will lose in a big way in the Lok Sabha polls, according to an opinion poll by TV news channel NDTV. The survey said the BSP, which won 19 Lok Sabha seats in the 2004 polls, is likely to get 35-40 seats in the 2009 elections.

March 22nd, 2009 LUCKNOW - Samajwadi Party (SP) General Secretary Amar Singh on Saturday said that the possibilities of an alliance with the Congress have been over. "We were always keen on an alliance with the Congress.

March 19th, 2009 NEW DELHI -Putting all speculation to rest, the Congress party Wednesday announced that possibilities of a poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party for the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh were over. 'Certainly the possibilities of alliance with Samajwadi Party are over now.

March 19th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Putting all speculation to rest, the Congress party Wednesday announced that possibilities of a poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party for the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh were over. 'Certainly the possibilities of alliance with Samajwadi Party are over now.

March 7th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress move to announce 24 candidates in Uttar Pradesh amounts to spiking a possible alliance in the state for the Lok Sabha elections, the Samajwadi Party said, adding it would not allot more than 17 seats to the Congress in any tie-up. Miffed at the Congress announcement, Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh told reporters here that this amounted to writing an 'obituary' for a Congress-Samajwadi alliance.

March 7th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Samajwadi Party Friday said it cannot give more then 17 seats to the Congress in Uttar Pradesh as part of pre-poll alliance for the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress, on its part, has already released a list of 24 candidates for the polls.

March 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress Wednesday finalised its first list of 24 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh. This includes seats the Samajwadi Party wants to contest.

March 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Samajwadi Party offered 15 Uttar Pradesh seats to the Congress, as chiefs of the two parties - Mulayam Singh Yadav and Sonia Gandhi - Sunday night held talks here to break the stalemate over seat-sharing in the state ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Gandhi and Mulayam Singh met at the Congress president's 10 Janpath residence here amid indications that the two parties apparently remained locked in hard bargaining over seat-sharing in India's most populous state.

February 26th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Uttar Pradesh Congress leaders say they will not settle for less than 25 seats in the state if an alliance takes place with the Samajwadi Party for the Lok Sabha elections. Ahead of a meeting with party chief Sonia Gandhi, Uttar Pradesh Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi told reporters here: 'We are prepared to contest all the 80 seats (in the state), but if an alliance is to happen, we will not accept anything less than 25 seats.' She was accompanied by state Congress legislature party leader Pramod Tiwari and Delhi legislator Pervez Hashmi.

February 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Gearing up for the Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday said that it has finalised its pre-poll alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), a party with some influence in western Uttar Pradesh. 'The alliance with the RLD has been finalised.