SP President Akhilesh Yadav.
– Photo: Amar Ujala
Expansion
SP is adamant on taking seats in Haryana assembly elections under India Alliance. According to sources, the Congress leadership has been told that if SP is weak in Haryana, then Congress is not strong in UP either. In the 2022 elections, the condition of Congress was very bad in the seats where Congress is claiming to contest the by-elections.
Political sources say that Congress has demanded 3 to 5 seats in UP by-elections, while SP has staked claim in Haryana and Maharashtra. The schedule for the assembly elections in Haryana has been released. SP says that there are 11 Yadav-dominated seats and 7 Muslim-dominated seats in Haryana. Out of these, SP is demanding 5 seats. On the other hand, it is said that the leaders of the Haryana unit of Congress are not ready to give seats to SP as a partnership. They say that SP does not have a mass base here.
SP sources say that in 2022, Congress was limited to less than 6 thousand votes in the 8 seats where by-elections were held in UP. In Meerapur, Kundarki, Khair and Phulpur, it did not even get two thousand votes. Congress got more than 10 thousand votes in only one seat in Ghaziabad.
If SP does not stake claim in Haryana, then on that basis Congress does not have the right to stake claim in UP by-elections. However, SP President Akhilesh Yadav had said in a program that he has told his point to the Congress leadership regarding Maharashtra and Haryana. In such a situation, it is believed that the seat sharing in UP will depend on Haryana and Maharashtra. If SP does not get a share in these two states, then SP is not willing to give any seat to Congress in UP either.
