Amid the uncertainty in the INDIA bloc grouping ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, a good news made its way, with the Samajwadi Party on Saturday announcing that it will share 11 seats to the Congress in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming polls.
The SP and the Congress are part of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, or INDIA, which is a grouping of 28 Opposition parties to take on the BJP-led NDA in the Lok Sabha polls. The state of Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha seats.
“Our cordial alliance with Congress is off to a good start with 11 strong seats,” Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said in a post on X.
“This trend will move forward with the winning equation. ‘India’ team and ‘PDA (Pichada (backwards), Dalits and Alpasankhyaks (minorities)’, strategy will change history,” he added.
If the Congress agrees to the deal, the state of UP will be the first state where the INDIA bloc will have a seat-sharing arrangement. In the last general elections, which was held in 2019, the Congress had won one seat, and SP had won five.
Reacting to this, UP Congress chief Ajay Rai said that the Congress leader Mukul Wasnik-led national alliance committee of Congress is taking a decision in the matter.
‘Will inform when a formula is finalised’: Congress
Congress general secretary, communications in-charge, Jairam Ramesh said constructive seat-sharing talks are on between senior party leader Ashok Gehlot and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, and it will inform when a formula is finalised.
“When a seat-sharing formula is finalised we will inform you. But today Akhilesh ji has spoken on this that talks are on and he is happy with the talks. I would say from my party’s side, talks are on between Ashok Gehlot and Akhilesh Yadav ji and they will meet soon,” Ramesh said.
The seat-sharing pact that will happen will be beneficial for the Congress, the SP, and the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), he asserted. Asked if the seat sharing was not final, Ramesh said, “It is final only when it is final.”
Yadav’s announcement came a week after the SP and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which is also an ally in INDIA, announced that the latter is going to contest on seven seats, as part of seat-sharing arrangement.
Chief spokesperson of the Samajwadi Party Rajendra Chaudhary told news agency PTI said that the number of 11 for the Congress is not likely to go up.
“We have given 11 seats to the Congress (in UP) and seven seats to the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). This comes to 18 seats. The SP will contest 62 seats in the Lok Sabha election,” the chief spokesperson of SP said.
In the current Lok Sabha, the SP has three MPs and the Bahujan Samaj Party has 10 MPs. Sonia Gandhi is the lone Congress MP from the state representing Rae Bareli constituency. The Apna Dal (Sonelal) has two MPs. The BJP has 64 MPs from the state.
Saturday’s development comes amid strong indications that Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar may do yet another volte-face and return to the BJP-led NDA, dealing a blow to the INDIA opposition bloc as well as the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ government.
The news also comes in the backdrop of the Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) governments in Punjab and West Bengal respectively announcing that it will be contesting alone and that there will be no alliance with the Congress in the Lok Sabha election that is scheduled in April-May this year.