It’s done: Samajwadi Party to fight 298 seats, Congress 105

Lucknow, January 22

After days of hectic parleys, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress today forged an alliance to contest the UP Assembly elections together. At a joint press conference here, leaders of the two parties said the SP would contest 298 of the 403 seats and Congress 105. “The SP and the Congress have forged an alliance and will contest the UP Assembly polls together,” SP state president Naresh Uttam said.

State PCC chief Raj Babbar said a common minimum programme would be ready within a week. 

A beaming Kironmoy Nanda, SP vice-president,  claimed, “We will get an absolute majority and Akhilesh Yadav will be the Chief Minister again.” In the 2012 Assembly poll, the SP had won 224 seats with a vote share of 29.3 per cent while the Congress had bagged 28 seats with a vote share of 11.7 per cent.

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Sources said the alliance materialised after Congress president Sonia Gandhi intervened with top leaders of both parties finalising the seat-sharing arrangement in the wee hours today. Prospects of an alliance  had run into rough weathe, with both parties hardening their stance over the number of seats. At one stage senior SP leader Naresh Agarwal had said the possibility was "almost over".

CM Akhilesh Yadav had initially offered 100 seats to the Congress but they were adamant on 120. The SP then argued that it had 234 sitting legislators and there were some others who would also contest. Thus, it needed at least 300 of the 403 seats. But this was unacceptable to the Congress. 

The Congress' Central Election Committee met in Delhi and went ahead with finalising candidates for 140 seats going to the polls in the first two phases. It, however, did not declare its candidates for these seats, keeping the door ajar for further negotiations, even as Babbar maintained, "There are no roadblocks in the talks." 

The Congress had reportedly demanded  that its candidates be fielded in the Amethi and Rae Bareli segments of the Lok Sabha constituencies represented by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul. It was not  known if the SP had accomodated this demand. Also, the Congress was  keen to include the Ajit Singh-led RLD in the alliance, which the SP did not want.

Earlier, RJD chief Lalu Prasad tweeted that he was in talks with the Congress and the SP for forging an alliance in UP. “Hoping and doing my best to stitch the Bihar-like alliance,” he tweeted. — PTI