The Samajwadi Party is likely to offer its Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partner Congress, 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. The Akhilesh Yadav-led party has also signaled its intention to give 5-7 seats to Rashtriya Lok Dal.
Since its inception in 1992, the Samajwadi Party has had a love-hate relationship with the Congress.
Despite the grand old party joining hands with the Samajwadi Party on several occasions in the last three decades, it has consistently viewed the SP as its adversary, given that the Congress lost its vote bank to them.
The Congress and the Samajwadi Party came closer when Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar started weaving an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party bloc to present a united challenge to the ruling BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. However, their relationship soured when Congress leader Kamal Nath and Akhilesh Yadav exchanged barbs over seat-sharing during the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections. This disagreement resulted in no coalition in the state and also led the former chief minister of UP calling Congress a cunning party.
The Samajwadi Party had last entered into an alliance with the Congress ahead of 2017 UP assembly elections which ended in a disaster for both the parties. The SP was reduced to 47 seats whereas Congress managed to win mere seven seats. After the result, SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav even blamed the alliance with Congress for the debacle.
Meanwhile, both parties returned to the friendship mode and after the recently concluded elections in five states, they mellowed down their tone against each other and now they are talking about the united opposition.
At the last meeting of INDIA bloc parties on December 19, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that the alliance would focus on seat-sharing talks at the state level and hold public meetings across the country, stressing that any decision on the prime ministerial candidate would be taken after the elections.
Sources said INDIA bloc parties decided to finalise seat sharing by the second week of January.
During the December 19 meeting, Akhilesh Yadav’s unprovoked outburst at the meeting over the possible inclusion of Bahujan Samaj Party in the bloc left most of the attendees shocked. Akhilesh had announced at the meeting that his party would quit the INDIA bloc if the Bahujan Samaj Party was brought on board.
The leaders of opposition parties present in the meeting were surprised by the SP chief’s comments as there had been no discussion on the induction of the BSP in any of the four meetings of the group held so far.
SP sources said that Akhilesh had information that a powerful section of the Congress was keen to ally with the BSP in Uttar Pradesh and it was only a matter of time before the induction of Mayawati’s party in the opposition group was proposed.
“His statement at the meeting was an attempt to pre-empt any such proposal,” he said.
Meanwhile, BSP chief Mayawati has so far maintained an equal distance from both the INDIA bloc and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. However, after the outburst by Akhilesh Yadav, the BSP chief was quick to remind the opposition leaders that no one knows who might need whom in the future for the sake of the public and the country.
Directly targeting Akhilesh Yadav, she said parties that made such statements might face embarrassment later. Mayawati’s quick response to Akhilesh’s outburst is being seen as her readiness to do business with the opposition.
The main battle for the 2024 elections is likely to be fought in Uttar Pradesh with both the ruling and opposition parties preparing to pull out all the stops.
