Hopes of an alliance between INDIA bloc partners the Congress and Samajwadi Party in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh came crashing down with the announcement of candidates by the grand old party. On Sunday, the first list of the Congress candidates for the upcoming polls in Madhya Pradesh featured names for four of the seven seats where the SP had already declared candidates.

The Akhilesh Yadav-helmed party then went on to declare nine more candidates in a move apparently aimed at sending a terse message to its INDIA partner. The four seats for which the Congress announced candidates include Chitrangi, Mehgaon, Bhander and Rajnagar, reports The Indian Express.

Also Read: Madhya Pradesh Elections 2023: Full list of Congress candidates

Reports suggest that the Samajwadi Party leadership was peeved with the Congress fielding a candidate from Bijawar constituency in Chhatarpur that the party won in 2018.

Speaking to The Indian Express, SP state president Ramayan Singh Patel said that “all possibilities of an alliance with the Congress are over”.

“We had some talk with the Congress leadership, but it all fell through on Sunday. We will contest seats on our own and will do well in the elections next year,” Patel said.

Also Read: Madhya Pradesh Election 2023: Full list of BJP candidates and constituencies

Stating that the SP would go alone in the MP polls and do well, another SP leader cited by the paper said that talks with the Congress fell through since the “Congress was more interested in defeating the SP than the BJP”.

“There were talks with the Congress leadership and we wanted 10 seats. They were offering fewer seats and suddenly they announced so many candidates without keeping us in the loop. This is not how an alliance works,” the leader said.

According to the leader, the Samajwadi Party is now set to field as many as 35 candidates in the 200-strong MP Assembly. “It is hurtful that they have announced a candidate in a seat we won in 2018 and were preparing to contest. They didn’t consult us or talk to us and fielded their candidate,” he said.

Also Read: MP elections 2023: Electoral showdowns pitting MPs, CM hopefuls and rebels to watch out for

The Bhilawar seat was won by SP’s Rajesh Kumar Shukla, alias ‘Bablu Bhaiya’, in the 2018 elections. However, Shukla defected to the BJP after the Congress government led by Kamala Nath fell. The SP was confident of putting up a strong performance in the BHulawar seat in the coming elections.

The Congress, meanwhile, maintains that the final decision on any alliance rests with the party’s high command. However, a leader privy to the developments said that the SP was trying to get more seats than it deserved. “They don’t have a footing in MP. How are they expecting so many seats? And the seat they are upset about … Their MLA joined the BJP. Hopefully, something can be worked out but the SP needs to understand the ground realities in a state where they have no footing,” the leader said.

Elections to the Madhya Pradesh Assembly are scheduled to be held on November 17, 2023 and the results are likely to be declared on December 3.

Also Read: MP election 2023: Will Congress conquer Scindia citadel?