After exchanging barbs, and publicly announcing the break-up of their alliance in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress and Samajwadi Party seem to have arrived at some sort of a limited understanding.

Congress district units are supporting SP candidates on five constituencies where the party has neither fielded any candidate nor is supporting one. These seats are in addition to Mainpuri, Kannauj and Firozabad from where Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav are contesting and where the Congress has not fielded any candidate.

In the first phase, the district Congress units are supporting SP candidates in Ghazipur, Ballia and Lalganj. Other such seats are Ambedkar Nagar in the second phase and Hardoi in the third.

Following instructions from the party high command, the state Congress sent a letter two days back to district units where the party has not fielded any candidate, asking them to support the one who represents a secular ideology. The “obvious” choice was the SP.

Chandra Shekhar Shukla, spokesperson of the Ghazipur district Congress, admitted they were supporting Radhey Mohan Singh of the SP. “Since instructions from the high command came at the last moment and we are going for polls in the first phase, we could not do much but have asked our workers to support and vote for the SP candidate,” he said. “We have made a public appeal to Congress supporters to vote for the SP.”

The SP is more than happy, with spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary saying they were “thankful to the Congress for supporting our candidates in places where they have not announced their own candidates.” Asked how the SP would reciprocate, Chaudhary said: “We have left four seats — Amethi, Rae Bareli, Ghaziabad and Mathura — and it is obvious that we have left these for the Congress.”