145;No friendly fights with Cong146;

Ahead of the next round of talks on seat sharing between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress...

Ahead of the next round of talks on seat sharing between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, SP general secretary Amar Singh on Friday said that the party was ready to concede only about a dozen seats to the Congress in Uttar Pradesh and ruled out 8220;friendly fights8221; during the Lok Sabha polls. He added that the party was not prepared to concede the seats it had won in the last elections to the Congress.

The SP8217;s decision would affect UP Congress leaders like Noor Bano, Salman Khursheed and Ratna Singh, as Singh said that the party was not going to let go seats like Rampur, Farrukhabad, and Pratapgarh where these leaders were staking their claims.

Hinting at the Congress8217;s declining performance in the Hindi heartland, Singh mentioned that in 2004 Lok Sabha elections the Congress had won only nine seats. The seat sharing could be on the basis of the 2004 Lok Sabha elections or the 8220;RJD model8221; adopted by Lalu Prasad Yadav in Bihar, Singh added. If the Bihar model is adopted, then only eight seats could be given to the Congress, he said noting that Lalu had given only four out of 40 seats in Bihar to the Congress. Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha seats.

Opposing the Congress8217;s idea of 8220;friendly fights8221; in a few seats, he said, 8220;in such an eventuality, there will be friendly fights in 78 seats and the SP will extend support to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in Rae Bareli and Amethi respectively8221;.

Singh also made it clear that his party was not ready to vacate any of the seats won by it in the last Lok Sabha elections, including Allahabad, to the Congress. Besides, he said that it was for the Congress to think how effectively it could contest seats like Ghaziabad and Varanasi amid BJP8217;s reported plans to field Rajnath Singh and Murli Manohar Joshi from these seats.

Asked whether efforts would be made to rope in RLD in the SP-Congress alliance, Amar Singh said that RLD chief Ajit Singh could not be trusted. He added that Ajit Singh had supported the BSP in the recent trust vote after ensuring that the Congress-led government renamed the Amausi airport in Lucknow after his father late Chaudhury Charan Singh and later held talks with BJP8217;s Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.