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‘Winnability, not fixed quotas’: SP snubs Cong push for 3-digit seat share
SP leaders ask Congress leadership to refrain from negotiating through media and instead form an alliance committee to initiate primary level discussions
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LUCKNOW Setting clear boundaries ahead of the 2027 UP Assembly polls, the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Thursday pushed back against reports of the Congress eyeing a three-digit seat share in a pre-Diwali alliance pact, asserting that “winnability” will be the sole criterion for distributing tickets.
Taking strong exception to statements regarding seat numbers, senior SP leaders asked the Congress leadership to refrain from negotiating through the media and instead form a formal alliance committee to initiate primary-level discussions.
“Any kind of media statement regarding seat sharing is not in the interest of the alliance, and what individual leaders say or claim is of no importance to us,” said former MLC and senior SP leader Udaiveer Singh. “The Congress top leadership should first form an alliance committee to start primary-level discussions with counterparts in our party. Subsequent to that, issues will be discussed between the top leadership of both parties. It is unfortunate that some leaders are fixing alliance seats through media discussions. This is against the spirit of the alliance,” he added.
Highly placed sources within the SP maintained that the party is closely analysing recent voting patterns, local organisational strength, and candidate viability rather than conceding a large block of seats based on the Congress’s national profile or its improved tally in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
SP president Akhilesh Yadav has repeatedly underlined this position. He stated that the successful 2024 INDIA bloc alliance with the Congress will continue for the 2027 Assembly polls, but candidate selection and seat-sharing will be decided solely on winnability.
“Gathbandhan bhi hoga, gathbandhan ke saath challenge bhi, baat humare liye seat ki nahi hogi, jeetne wali seat ki hogi. Jo jeete woh seat le le” (there will be an alliance, and there will also be challenges with it. For us, it will not be about seats but about winnability, whoever can win a seat should get it),” Yadav said while launching the party’s campaign from Rae Bareli in September this year.
Party sources indicated that the SP is analysing recent voting patterns, local organisational strength and candidate viability rather than conceding a large block of seats based on the Congress’s national profile or its improved showing in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. While the SP has in earlier reports been linked to offers in the range of around 60-65 seats, sources stressed that the final number will flow purely from winnability assessments, not fixed quotas.
According to official EC data, in the 2022 UP Legislative Assembly polls (403 seats), the BJP won 255 seats with 41.29% of valid votes. The SP secured 111 seats with 32.06%. The Congress won just two seats with a 2.33% vote share, despite contesting the vast majority of constituencies. The Rashtriya Lok Dal (then allied with the SP) won eight seats, while the Bahujan Samaj Party managed only one seat despite a 12.88% vote share. The broader SP-led alliance finished with around 125 seats against the NDA’s roughly 273.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in UP (80 seats), the picture shifted under a seat-sharing arrangement. The SP won 37 seats (approximately 33.8% vote share overall). The BJP took 33 seats (around 41.7%). The Congress, allotted 17 seats in the INDIA alliance, won six (overall vote share about 9.5%). The INDIA bloc finished with 43 seats to the NDA’s 36.
“Data from the Election Commission does not lie,” another SP source said. “In 2022, the Congress’s statewide performance was minimal. In 2024, targeted seats delivered better results. For 2027, we will look at Assembly segments where any ally has proven strength, recent margins and candidate acceptability. Numbers for the sake of numbers help no one. As Akhilesh ji has said time and again, the alliance continues, but only winnability decides the seats,” he added.
The SP’s emphasis on winnability has set a clear boundary. Party leaders maintain that an effective alliance against the BJP requires prioritising seats that can actually be won, rather than symbolic or inflated allocations.
