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Cong, SP at odds over 6-8 seats amid gap between claims, reality
There are indications that leaders of the two parties will meet again the next week, including on Monday/Tuesday, for further talks.
About six to eight seats in Uttar Pradesh remain the bone of contention between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party even as the two parties continue holding seat- sharing talks for the Lok Sabha polls.
This is the current situation despite claims that the Congress and the Samajwadi Party have nearly reached an electoral understanding as partners of the INDIA bloc in Uttar Pradesh, people aware of the matter said.
The five-member Congress committee holding the talks met the party leadership in New Delhi on Saturday for a briefing.
“Yes, the five-member committee met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to inform him about the progress. There is a lack of sync between what is being claimed and what is happening at the meetings between the two parties. Six to eight seats, including those of Lakhimpur Kheri, Kanpur and some others, need to be given to the Congress. But the SP is giving us seats that we have not asked for,” said a senior party leader aware of the developments in the seat-sharing talks.
There are indications that leaders of the two parties will meet again the next week, including on Monday/Tuesday, for further talks.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav had recently announced that his party has set aside 11 seats for the Congress. The SP later declared its candidates for 16 Lok Sabha seats. The Congress leaders felt that the SP’s announcement about the seats was unilateral.
The Congress has invited leaders of the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal to join the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra that will enter the state from Bihar on February 14. All eyes will be on who joins the yatra and who stays away in U.P, they said.
Amid a growing feeling in some sections that the BSP should also be roped in as INDIA bloc partner, Congress leaders asserted the doors were still open for all the political parties to jointly challenge the BJP in this year’s Lok Sabha elections.
