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There is less than a year left for the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. In view of the elections, preparations have started in BJP and opposition parties. Work is going on from sharpening the alliance to uniting the organization. Also, all the parties are brainstorming to find their respective candidates in the assembly. From BJP to SP and BSP, caste equations are being created. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s cabinet has already been reshuffled through social engineering. At the same time, workers of Congress and Samajwadi Party are hoping for an alliance.

However, despite no announcement of alliance from both SP-Congress, the leaders of both the parties are confident that there will be an alliance in future. Some indications have also been received from both the parties regarding the alliance.

Samajwadi Party in the role of elder brother

In this, Samajwadi Party is in the role of elder brother. It will give seats to Congress on its own terms, including through pressure or whatever means Congress has to take seats from it. However, SP did not get much advantage over Congress in the 2017 and 2022 assembly elections. But, Samajwadi Party knows that both the parties benefited from the alliance with Congress during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Both of them together have 43 out of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh. He argues that it is right to continue it for the next elections.

UP politics talks

There are still many difficulties in forming a SP-Congress alliance. For example- seat distribution, seat selection etc. It is not certain whether the SP-Congress alliance, which got huge success in UP, will get it in the Assembly also because there is very little benefit from alliance in state level elections. Local leaders of Samajwadi Party have always been complaining that Congress no longer has a strong base in the state and it is only taking advantage of their party.

A section of the Samajwadi Party says that after the poor results of 2017, both the parties had fought the elections separately in 2022 and in that election, Congress had got only two seats with just 2.33 percent vote share. The rift between the two parties continued even after the 2017 elections. Meanwhile, in the 2019 Madhya Pradesh elections, Congress did not give a single seat to the Samajwadi Party. Congress contested the elections alone and lost the elections to BJP.

Why is Congress taking the name of West Bengal?

In fact, opposition parties have lost the elections in Delhi, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. In Bengal, TMC has disintegrated after BJP won the elections. Congress is putting pressure on Samajwadi Party to get maximum seats in UP, saying that if Congress does not get proper respect then the condition of SP may be like these states. Along with this, Congress also says that Rahul Gandhi’s image has strengthened with time, hence he should get more seats. Congress MP from Saharanpur Imran Masood and former MLA Alka Lamba have also given statements regarding this.

What is Congress saying?

Uttar Pradesh Congress has made it clear in a proposal to its central leadership that if respectable seat sharing is not done then the party is capable of contesting the elections alone on 403 seats.

Congress’s UP in-charge Avinash Pandey said in a statement to the media, ‘Our top leadership will take the decision on the Congress-SP alliance in Uttar Pradesh. Our current priority is to strengthen the party organization. After the change in the voter list, we are focusing on strengthening the organization in every district. We are increasing our presence on all 403 seats to counter BJP effectively.

Akhilesh Yadav’s visit to the districts

Amidst all this, Samajwadi Party President and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is visiting every district of Uttar Pradesh. He visited Agra this Sunday and took feedback of the district. The party has conducted caste survey in every district. After this, Akhilesh Yadav is visiting the districts to meet their local leaders and party workers before deciding on the distribution of tickets.

Meanwhile, some senior Congress leaders say that there is good coordination between Congress and SP. Congress said, ‘We are making preparations on all the seats. Unless we ourselves are strong, we cannot help others. Therefore it is important for both of us to be strong. The political atmosphere is changing in UP. Change is coming.

The final decision is in the hands of Akhilesh-Rahul

One thing is certain in these developments that the final decision on seat-sharing in UP will be taken only through direct talks between Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi. It is believed that Samajwadi Party is targeting 60-80 seats for its ally.