Congress hands SP list of over 200 seats for UP polls, citing Lok Sabha gains

New Delhi: With the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections approaching, political parties have begun talks on seat sharing. Discussions between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress are reported to have started. The Congress intends to ally with the SP and contest more than 200 seats.

According to sources, the Congress has handed the SP a list of more than 200 seats and staked its claim to them. For UP 2027, the party has sought about 50 per cent of the 403 seats. The list was given to the SP by Rajendra Pal Gautam, the party's in-charge for UP.

The claim is based on the 2024 Lok Sabha election, which the Congress contested in alliance with the SP and in which its performance improved considerably. The Congress led in 38 Assembly segments and was second in 42 others. The party has put all these 80 seats on its "wish list". The list includes seats linked to senior party leaders such as Ajay Rai, Ajay Lallu, Supriya Shrinate and Nadeem Javed. The Congress is also preparing to claim seats in Amethi, Raebareli and Saharanpur that are currently held by SP MLAs.

The confidence stems from the Congress's good showing in Uttar Pradesh in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, when its vote share also rose. Six of its candidates won as MPs. It was then in alliance with the SP. In recent Assembly elections, however, the Congress has kept its distance from allies and contested alone. For this reason, all eyes are on whether a Congress-SP alliance takes shape.

The Congress has picked seats where it did better, on the 2024 Lok Sabha results, than in the Assembly election. For this the party has created categories named "A", "B", "C" and "D", and seats have been decided accordingly. The Congress says that under its organisation-building campaign it has strengthened its organisational position on the ground, and its claim should therefore cover more than 200 seats.

Priyanka Gandhi could play an important role in the talks. The Congress general secretary recently held a three-hour meeting with the party's Uttar Pradesh leaders on seat sharing. According to sources, she may play a key part in the seat talks with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. In 2022, the Congress contested alone and won only two seats.

The SP says the criterion for giving seats will remain winnability. In numbers, the Congress is asking for 175 to 200 seats (50 per cent), while the SP is offering 60 to 70 seats (15 to 17 per cent). A middle path could be 100 to 110 seats (25 per cent), and a consensus is said to be likely on this. Under the 2024 Lok Sabha formula, the Congress contested 17 of 80 seats, or 21 per cent. In the same proportion, 100 of 403 seats works out to about 25 per cent.