Digvijay romancing misconception of "friendly fight": Amar

Locked in hard bargaining with the Congress over sharing of seats in Uttar Pradesh in the coming Lok Sabha elections, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh on Sunday said it will be a misconception if the Congress entertained any thought of “friendly fight” in some constituencies.

“Friendly fight is a lovely misconception my friend (AICC general secretary) Digvijay Singh is romancing. A fight can be friendly, this is for the first time I have come to know,” Amar Singh told reporters here.

Singh was referring to the Rampur, Farrukhabad and Pratapgarh seats where Congress was planning to field candidates. Congress has hinted that it was ready for ‘friendly fights´ on seats where it fails to reach an agreement with the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led party.

The three seats have sitting SP MPs. Congress wants to field former UP Congress chief Salman Khurshid from Farrukhabad, Ranta Singh, the daughter of party veteran late Dinesh Singh from Pratapgarh and Beghum Noor Bano from Rampur.

Chandra Bhushan (Farrukhabad), Akshay Pratap Singh (Pratapgarh) and Jaya Prada Nahata (Rampur) are the sitting SP MPs.

Meanwhile, with the picture still not clear about its alliance with SP, Congress is toying with the idea of contesting all the 80 seats in the state. “Discussions are still on” about alliance with SP is the constant refrain of Congress leaders.