The Congress and the Samajwadi Party are reportedly at loggerheads over seat-sharing for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, with the former demanding at atleast 181 seats. The Congress state unit has already submitted a list to SP President Akhilesh Yadav.
The SP senior leadership believes the Congress demand is untenable and the party should only be getting less than 100. “We hope that the Congress would agree to 50 to 60 seats, or a maximum of 65. Congress has submitted its seat list for now, and a final decision has not yet been made by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav,” according to SP senior leader Shivpal Singh Patel.
“Giving more seats to the Congress could impact the morale of the party's grassroots workers. The seat allocation should take into account the current political situation and electoral potential of both parties,” Patel said.
According to local media reports, the SP has prepared a dossier on the Congress's position based on the 2022 election data. In the previous elections, the party only won two seats with 2.33 per cent of the vote. The Congress fielded candidates in 399 seats out of a total of 403. However, the party managed to win only the Rampur Khas and Farenda seats whereas SP had won 111 seats.
The SP believes the seat allocation should be based only on the “winning ability” of the candidates rather than just numbers. Interestingly, the expectation was that Congress could claim 125-130 seats, but the current claim has gone beyond their expectation.
Though Akhilesh Yadav has not made any statement, he had earlier made it clear that the “alliance dharma” will be fully adhered to. Internal discussions indicate that the SP may ultimately offer 30 to 40 seats to Congress after negotiations, a senior leader told Amar Ujala.
However, the Congress claims the list was prepared by the state and central leaders based on ground reports. They believe they had a strong position in these 181 Assembly seats. The state has seen a shift in political allegiance over the last few months, with the minority, Dalit, and young voters increasingly turning to Congress in these constituencies. Congress believes that if the party is allowed to contest these seats under an alliance, the results could be surprising.
However, political analysts believe resolving this would be difficult as the Congress aims to regain its lost ground, while the SP is pursuing a strategy to contest most of the seats on its own.
The SP also doesn't want a Bihar-like situation, where the Congress and RJD continued to wrangle over seat sharing until the last minute. Despite the alliance, both parties fielded their own candidates in several seats, resulting in a crushing defeat.
