The regional alliance between the Samajwadi Party and Congress follows their successful joint outing in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, where they secured 43 of Uttar Pradesh's 80 parliamentary seats. While Congress previously sought an equal division of state constituencies, Yadav confirmed its formal demand stands at 181 seats. This seat demand contrasts sharply with the 2022 state elections, where Congress contested independently and won just two of 399 contested seats while 387 candidates lost their deposits. Yadav maintained confidence in the partnership, noting it is rooted in Baba Saheb Ambedkar's movement.
Key points
Candidate winnability serves as the sole criterion for deciding seat allocations to chall…: Candidate winnability serves as the sole criterion for deciding seat allocations to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Samajwadi Party chief firmly ruled out any adjustments to the current coalition lineu…: The Samajwadi Party chief firmly ruled out any adjustments to the current coalition lineup.
The opposition alliance relies on strong past parliamentary results where the Samajwadi P…: The opposition alliance relies on strong past parliamentary results where the Samajwadi Party achieved 37 seats.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
Lucknow: As an alliance partner of
Samajwadi Party in the INDIA bloc, the
Congress wants to contest on 181 seats in UP. This was formally confirmed for the first time by SP president
Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday. The confirmation came moments after Akhilesh said that INDIA bloc will defeat BJP in UP polls and ruled out any change in alliance’s constituents in the future and added that SP has decided how many seats SP will contest.
Until now, Congress leadership has been throwing numbers in media interviews -- demanding equal partner status in UP polls and suggesting that it wants to contest on half of the 403 Assembly seats. The SP leadership, however, has been clear on its stance that winnability of candidates will remain the sole criterion for fielding candidates rather than count of seats. It has insisted that the priority id to defeat the BJP.
As INDIA bloc members, SP and Congress had outperformed the BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha polls by winning 43 of the 80 seats in UP and getting 43.52% of the votes. Congress had…
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