Continuing with his policy of ‘my candidate, your symbol’, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is now convincing the Congress to field Ujjawal Raman Singh of SP from Allahabad seat of Prayagraj district on Congress symbol.

The Allahabad seat has gone to the Congress in seat-sharing.

A senior Congress leader confirmed that Ujjawal Raman Singh is likely to contest the 2024 polls from Allahabad on a Congress ticket but Singh himself refrained from commenting on the matter.

The Allahabad seat is one of the 17 seats allocated to the Congress quota for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Congress and the Samajwadi Party are contesting the elections in alliance as partners of the INDIA bloc in Uttar Pradesh.

Ujjwal Raman Singh has served two terms as an MLA from the Karchana legislative assembly seat of Allahabad, which falls within the Allahabad Lok Sabha constituency.

He served as an MLA from 2004 to 2007 and was re-elected in 2017. He also served as the environment minister in Mulayam Singh Yadav’s government.

Singh belongs to the Bhumihar community and is the son of former MP and former UP minister Rewati Raman Singh.

The Congress will need to drop its candidate for Allahabad seat, Anugrah Narain Singh, if the deal with SP comes through.

Meanwhile, there are indications that the Congress may also field one of its leaders on an SP ticket. “We are making efforts to nominate Dhirendra Pratap Singh, a general secretary in the UPCC, from Shravasti. If the Samajwadi Party agrees, he may contest on an SP ticket,” said a party leader.