The Congress-SP alliance may hit rough weather. The reason: first list of 191 candidates issued by SP on Friday has upset the seat sharing formula agreed upon by both parties.
In western UP, which goes to polls first, SP had agreed to give Congress 100 seats. It was broadly agreed that SP will leave the winning seats, as well as those constituencies where the Congress party secured second position in 2012.
In SP’s first list, the party has fielded candidates in 70 such seats — all supposed to go to the Congress. Moreover, SP also fielded candidates in the seats where the Congress won in 2012.
Not long after SP came out with the list, senior Congress leaders held a meeting. SP vice president Kiranmoy Nanda said that a consensus regarding the seats could not be reached with the Congress. He also made it clear that the Congress had not given SP any candidate list.
In Amethi, a pocket borough of the Congress, the SP would field its candidate. He said that the polls would be fought under the leadership of Akhilesh Yadav. The party will release its manifesto on Monday.
