At the INDIA bloc's Tuesday meeting, one section of the Opposition leaders claimed that they have reached a broad understanding that seat-sharing talks for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls should be concluded before December 31. Another section said these negotiations would be completed by mid-January. A large section of the alliance, however, remains sceptical of finalising seat-sharing any time soon. This is especially true in a crucial state like Uttar Pradesh, which accounts for highest number of the Lok Sabha seats in the country – 80. The alliance involves the Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP), and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in UP, with the SP as the principal Opposition being the most dominant player among them. At Tuesday's meeting, SP president Akhilesh Yadav and RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary were present. For the past several months, the Congress, SP and RLD have not been on the best of terms in the state. The Congress had drawn the SP's ire for not sharing seats with it in the recent MadhyaPradesh Assembly polls, with the latter then warning that the grand old party would get the the “tit-for-tat treatment” in UP. The RLD was also left unhappy when it was given just one seat by the Congress in the Rajasthan polls. It is another matter that the Congress was routed in the polls in both the states. There had also been some tension between the SP and the RLD over seat-sharing in the urban local body elections earlier this year. The RLD had then accused the SP of “bullying” and not giving it enough seats. In the 2022 UP Assembly polls, which was largely a fight between the SP and the BJP, the SP won 111 seats (out of 347 it contested), the Congress only two seats (out of 403), and the RLD won nine seats (out of 33). The BJP won the polls by bagging 255 seats. The UP Congress headed by Ajay Rai has been making attempts for the party's revival, but the battle still mainly involves the BJP and the principal Opposition SP in the state. Several state Congress leaders say the party will stake its claim over 20-25 seats, saying it had won 21 seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. A senior Congress leader told The Indian Express, “We will at least want to contest the seats we won in 2009. And we hope to get at least those seats. During a recent meeting too, it was decided that we should get at least 20 seats in the state.” The Congress has been in political wilderness in UP for over three decades, but the 2009 elections had marked an exception for the party electorally as it had then managed to win seats in all regions of the state, including western UP, Terai, central Awadh, eastern UP, and Bundelkhand. Ajay Rai has, however, refrained from spelling out the number of seats the party would seek. “We are preparing our organisation on all 80 seats. Because even if we give a seat to our ally, it will still require us to have a strong organisation there. The seat sharing will be decided by the Delhi leadership of the party,” he said. On its part, the SP is looking to contest 50-60 seats in the polls slated for April-May 2024. A senior party leader said, “The final call will be taken by our leader (Akhilesh Yadav), but as per discussions in recent party meetings, we will contest at least 50 seats in the state.” None of the INDIA parties in UP have officially commented so far as to how many seats it was looking to secure among the three allies. SP spokesperson and ex-MLC Udaiveer Singh said, “We will hold meetings with allies, and accordingly decide.We will give seats to our allies based on winnability.” In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when the SP had allied with the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), it had fought 37 seats, with 38 and 3 contested, respectively, by the BSP and RLD. Their alliance had left two seats for the Congress – Rae Bareilly and Amethi, which were contested by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi respectively. While the SP had won only five seats – Mainpuri (Mulayam Singh Yadav), Azamgarh (Akhilesh Yadav), Rampur (Azam Khan), Moradabad (ST Hasan) and Sambhal (Shafiqur Rehman Barq) – the BSP had bagged 10 seats with the RLD drawing a blank. Despite contesting all 80 seats, the Congress had won just on seat, Rae Bareli. This time, the Jayant Chaudhary-led RLD is “preparing to contest” about 12 seats in western UP, where it has a support base among Jats and Gurjars, said party leaders. RLD national general secretary Kuldeep Ujjwal said, “To keep the alliance intact, all of us have to show a big heart. And for that, our allies will have to be accommodating.” He also said, “INDIA alliance will put up a strong fight and more discussions will happen in the coming days.” The RLD's bargaining power may be impacted by its 2019 rout.
