The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress on Wednesday announced a seat-sharing agreement for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections for Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, marking the first major breakthrough in contentious seat talks in the beleaguered Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).
At a joint press conference, the two parties announced that the SP will contest 63 seats in UP and the Congress 17. In Madhya Pradesh, the SP will contest the Khajuraho seat and the Congress the other 28.
“We will not only fight together, but will defeat the BJP together,” Congress UP incharge Avinash Pande said.
“The BJP came to power in 2014 through UP. Now, in 2024, it will exit through UP with SP, Congress, and INDIA bloc ousting the BJP from UP,” the SP’s Rajendra Chaudhary said.
To be sure, the alliance is looking at an uphill battle in India’s most-populous state, where the BJP holds 62 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats. The announcement came days after the Rashtriya Lok Dal hinted that it was leaving the INDIA bloc to join hands with the BJP.
The Congress will contest Rae Bareli, Amethi, Varanasi, Kanpur City, Fatehpur Sikri, Bansgaon, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Maharajganj, Amroha, Jhansi, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Sitapur, Barabanki and Deoria, said SP state unit chief Naresh Uttam Patel.
{{/usCountry}}The Congress will contest Rae Bareli, Amethi, Varanasi, Kanpur City, Fatehpur Sikri, Bansgaon, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Maharajganj, Amroha, Jhansi, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Sitapur, Barabanki and Deoria, said SP state unit chief Naresh Uttam Patel.
{{/usCountry}}HT had reported the list on February 20, with only the Hathras seat replaced by Sitapur. The Congress has only one sitting MP among these 17 – former chief Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli – but the 77-year-old leader recently entered the Rajya Sabha.
This is the first seat-sharing arrangement formalised by the INDIA bloc for any state and came after days of tense talks.
The SP, which fought the 2019 elections in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party, had won five seats.
“Under the agreement between the two parties, the SP will contest one seat on its symbol in MP--the Khajuraho seat. On the rest of the MP seats, the SP will support the Congress candidates. Likewise, the Congress will contest 17 seats (in UP) and the SP will work towards making the Congress win the 17 seats,” said Patel.
The SP has already named 31 candidates. The SP indicated it will withdraw Varanasi candidate Surendra Singh Patel, declared on Tuesday.
Pande said the Congress will declare seats very soon. “The candidate declaration follows a procedure. First, the UP Congress Committee will propose and finalise the list, then the list will be reviewed and finalised by All India Congress Committee.”
The four leaders at the press conference credited SP’s Akhilesh Yadav, Udaiveer Singh, Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge, senior leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and all the leaders from both sides on the negotiations committee.
“The INDIA bloc will defeat the NDA in 2024,” said UP Congress chief Ajay Rai.
When asked if Rahul Gandhi would contest Amethi and Priyanka Gandhi Rae Bareli, Pande said, “The Amethi and Rae Bareli seats are dear to the Congress and the Gandhi family, and the leadership will take a call on them.”
People aware of developments said Priyanka Gandhi spoke to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday morning and gave a final push to seat talks. Both Priyanka Gandhi and Yadav held a long discussion over phone and the former persuaded the latter to leave certain seats.
“Yes, initially the SP offered seats where the Congress did not have a strong base. Priyanka Gandhi persuaded the SP chief to leave Amroha and Barabanki in lieu of Jalaun and Baghpat Lok Sabha seats... The Congress insisted that it was not a question of having more seats to contest. Instead, this was a question of winnability of seats,” said a senior Congress leader on condition of anonymity.