Seat sharing between Samajwadi Party and Congress gets edgy
For the upcoming Lok Sabha elections of 2024, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress, its alliance partner, have ended negotiations over seat sharing. With a final offer of 17 seats, the Akhilesh Yadav-led party has now thrown the ball into the hands of the Congress.
On Monday, the day Rahul Gandhi arrived in Amethi, the offer was made to the Congress party there. The Samajwadi Party’s chief negotiator informed that the fact that the Congress has not replied to the offer indicates that the party is rejecting it. The Congress leadership, however, informed that the alliance is still in place. Yadav stated on Monday that the two parties’ discussions over seat sharing are progressing well.
SP to join Nyay Yatra followed by seat sharing
“Right now, talks are going on, lists have come from them, we have also given them the list. The moment, seat distribution is done, Samajwadi Party will join their Nyaya Yatra,” the SP president had said. Hours later, the SP released its list of 11 candidates for the elections.
The failure of the alliance would be the second biggest blow to the Congress after Mamata Banerjee, the leader of the Trinamool Congress, announced her intention to run for 42 seats in West Bengal alone.
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Politics in Uttar Pradesh
In Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India, the Congress, which once controlled the political landscape, has been struggling to survive. The state saw the grand old party win 21 seats in 2009, but after the Modi wave in 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party won 282 seats, leaving the party with a pitiful two seats. Sonia Gandhi was the only Congress member representing the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, as her son Rahul Gandhi was defeated by BJP candidate Smriti Irani by a margin of over 55,000 votes.
In contrast, the Samajwadi Party ran in the 2019 elections in coalition with Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Ten seats were won by the BSP, and five by the SP.
