1. Samajwadi Party (SP) concludes seat-sharing discussions with Congress for Lok Sabha elections.
2. SP presents the final offer of 17 seats and awaits Congress’s response.
3. Decision now lies with Congress as SP puts an end to negotiations.
New Delhi, Feb 20: The Samajwadi Party (SP) has brought an end to seat-sharing discussions with its INDIA alliance partner, the Congress, for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Offering a final proposal of 17 seats, the Akhilesh Yadav-led party now awaits a response from Congress, effectively putting the decision in their hands.
This offer was extended on Monday, coinciding with Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Amethi. Despite the gesture, Congress has yet to respond, indicating a potential rejection of the proposal by the grand old party.
However, the Congress leadership maintains that the alliance remains intact. Yadav had previously stated that negotiations between the two parties were in an advanced stage, suggesting optimism regarding the partnership.
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“While talks are ongoing and lists have been exchanged, the Samajwadi Party will align with their Nyaya Yatra once seat distribution is finalized,” affirmed the SP president. Shortly after this statement, the SP released a list of 11 candidates for the forthcoming elections.
Failure to secure this alliance would mark another setback for the Congress, following Mamata Banerjee’s declaration of contesting 42 seats independently in West Bengal.
The Congress, once a dominant force in Uttar Pradesh, has seen a decline in its influence over recent years.
Despite winning 21 seats in 2009, its tally plummeted to just two in 2014 amidst the wave of support for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In the 2019 elections, Sonia Gandhi emerged as the sole Congress MP from the state, with Rahul Gandhi losing his seat to BJP’s Smriti Irani.
Contrastingly, the Samajwadi Party had formed an alliance with the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in the 2019 elections. While the SP secured five seats, the BSP emerged victorious in 10 constituencies.
