The orders — from state party chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi and AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh came soon after the SP started announcing its candidates unilaterally. They also named the candidates and asked partymen to begin working for them.

Among the 20 constituencies, there are at least four which the SP won in the last elections. The party has already announced its candidates for the rest.

Sources in the Congress said the party cannot compromise on these seats. The formal announcement of names is likely after the February 8 meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee.

Of these constituencies, nine are those which the Congress had won in the last elections. The sitting MPs have all been given the go-ahead, except Jitin Prasada whose constituency Shahjahanpur has become reserved in delimitation. The party is planning to field Chet Ram there. Prasada wants to contest from Dhaura, but the party has not taken any decision on it yet.

Others who received the green signal include Salman Khurshid from Farrukhabad, Ratna Singh from Pratapgarh, PL Punia from Barabanki, Jagdambika Pal from Siddharthanagar, Praveen Aron from Bareilly, Raj Babbar from Fatehpur Sikri, Devi Dayal from Bulandshahar, and Nagendra Mullik from Muzaffarnagar.

Of these constituencies, the SP had won in Farrukhabad, Pratapgarh, Baranbanki and Muzaffarnagar. It has announced its candidates for Barabanki, Muzaffarnagar and Fatehpur Sikri. The party has stated that it would not give any seat which had won or where its candidate was second in the last election.

Joshi confirmed that they had asked their probable candidates to begin work. “It is true that around 20 of them have started campaigning, because these are seats where we will contest under any circumstances,” she said.

On Thursday, shortly after arriving from Delhi, she visited Varanasi and participated in a regional Dalit sammelan. Thereafter, she went back to Delhi for discussions on election-related matters with the central leadership.

The probable candidates are holding public meetings and are conspicuous in party programmes, like dharnas and demonstrations on local issues.

Party sources said that lately, Joshi herself has been also spending at least a day a week in Phoolpur, from where she wants to contest. Here too, the SP has announced its candidate.