LUCKNOW: While undergoing Sangathan Srijan (party building) in all districts, there are murmurs in the Congress party's Uttar Pradesh unit about a ‘possible’ seat-sharing arrangement with the Samajwadi Party (SP) for UP Assembly elections due in 2027.
The two India bloc partners had contested UP assembly polls in 2017 and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls together.
Under the seat-sharing arrangements in respective electoral battles, the Congress was given 105 of 403 UP assembly seats in the 2017 elections and 17 of 80 UP Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 LS polls.
In 2017, the outcome was a crushing defeat of the alliance as Congress had won just seven seats of the 105 it had contested. On the other hand, SP had dwindled down to 47 from 229. The alliance together had got 54 seats.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the alliance had put up an impressive show with Congress winning six of the 17 seats it had contested on and the SP walked away with 37 seats, pushing the ruling BJP to 33 from 62.
In 2022 Assembly polls, both the alliance partners contested separately wherein SP improved its tally, taking it to 111 from 47, however, Congress was relegated to just two seats.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, while SP was in a grand alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party. Together, they could win just 15 of the 80 seats, with SP getting just five seats and BSP 10. On the other hand, Congress, which had gone it alone, could win just one seat of Rae Bareli.
In the present scenario, several Congress party leaders remain sceptical about the bargaining power of the party. They are apprehensive whether the party will be able to bargain better this time or be satisfied with as many seats as the SP may spare in case of an alliance between the two in the 2027 polls.
Many senior leaders are of the view that the party should bargain for at least 150 of the 403 UP assembly seats for the 2027 polls and begin preparations for them.
Many of them have come up with the formula of ‘One Seat Per District’ or ‘One Seat Per Parliament constituency’ for the Congress to ensure that the party’s organisational units in all districts remain active, if the Congress-SP alliance takes final shape in 2027.
However, according to UP Congress Committee president Ajay Rai, it is not the right time to discuss the issue of seat distribution.
“We are in the process of organisation building across 403 assembly segments. This is not the stage to discuss seat adjustment. The Congress central leadership will take a call at an appropriate time,” he said.
Even the Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’ is also of the same view, saying the Congress and SP contested the 2024 polls together and continue to be in alliance. “It should be left to the party’s central leadership,” she said.
A senior leader, however, said: “We will request the party leadership to ensure that the party gets at least one assembly seat in every district or at least one seat in a Lok Sabha constituency.”
Another Congress leader said senior party leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, were in touch with state party leaders, and some of these leaders would soon convey this feeling to them.
The Congress leaders are hopeful of some magnanimity on the part of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav while sparing number of seats desired by the Congress in case an alliance takes shape for 2027 UP polls.