Samajwadi Party (SP) is likely to offer 10 seats to Congress and 5-7 seats to Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in Uttar Pradesh for Lok Sabha elections 2024, said the sources on Wednesday.
There has been a love-hate relationship between Akhilesh Yadav-led SP and Mallikarjun Kharge-headed Congress over the years. The grand old party and SP came closer when Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar started weaving an anti-BJP bloc to pose a united challenge to the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah-led saffron party in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. But, surprisingly their relationship turned sour when Congress leader Kamal Nath and Akhilesh Yadav exchanged barbs over Madhya Pradesh election seat-sharing which ended with no friendship in the state election and also prompted the former UP chief to say that Congress is a 'cunning party'. If we look at their last poll alliance, we find, it bore no fruit and failed brutally in the assemy election 2017. The SP-Congress alliance won only 54 seats out of 403. That time, Mulayam Singh Yadav blamed the alliance with Congress for the debacle. Meanwhile, both parties returned to the friendship mode after the recently concluded five-state elections, they mellowed down their tone against each other and now they are talking about the united opposition.
I.N.D.I.A bloc parties to focus on seat sharing
At the last meeting of I.N.D.I.A bloc parties on December 19, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said that the bloc will 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 will be taken after the elections. Sources said INDIA bloc parties have decided to finalise seat sharing by the second week of January.
Addressing a press conference after a meeting of top leaders of the I.N.D.I.A bloc here, Kharge said, "All INDIA parties unanimously decided how to take the alliance forward. At least 8-10 meetings will be done together across the country."
"If alliance members don't come on the same stage people will not come to know of the alliance. Everyone agreed to it," he said.
The Congress president said seat-sharing talks will be held at the state level, and if any issues arise, I.N.D.I.A bloc leadership will address them.
"Whether Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Bihar, UP, Delhi or Punjab, the issues on seat sharing will be resolved," he said.
At the meeting, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal proposed Kharge's name as the prime ministerial candidate of opposition bloc INDIA, MDMK chief Vaiko said.
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