Akhilesh keen to finalise seat sharing with Congress before further I.N.D.I.A meetings

A senior SP leader told DH that Congress' hold did not go beyond Amethi, which was represented by senior Congress Rahul Gandhi, who lost the seat in 2019 LS polls to union minister Smriti Irani, and Raebareli, which was represented by former Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Lucknow: In an indication that his party is in no mood to accede to Congress' demand for around two dozen seats in Uttar Pradesh in the next year's Lok Sabha elections as part of the I.N.D.I.A alliance, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav has hinted that any further talks with the grand old party will be held only after the seat sharing between the parties is finalised.

According to the sources in the SP, Akhilesh's wariness in going ahead with talks with the Congress is the result of the treatment meted out by the latter in the recently concluded Madhya Pradesh Assembly poll. 

Congress had initially agreed to give six seats to the SP but later it backed out and refused to have any electoral understanding with the SP triggering a sharp reaction from Akhilesh, who went on to accuse the Congress leaders of having a ''tacit understanding'' with the BJP.

A senior SP leader here said while speaking to DH that Congress' hold did not go beyond Amethi, which was represented by senior Congress Rahul Gandhi, who lost the seat in 2019 LS polls to union minister Smriti Irani, and Raebareli, which was represented by former Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

''Truly speaking Congress should get only two seats-Amethi and Raebareli....it does not have any presence except in these LS constituencies,'' the leader remarked though he added that the SP did not want to break the I.N.D.I.A alliance nor leave the same.

Congress, according to the sources, wanted around two dozen seats stating that it had won 22 seats in the state in the 2009 LS polls.  

A UP Congress leader here said that the I.N.D.I.A alliance had been formed to safeguard the secular character of the country and put an end to communal politics. ''Every I.N.D.I.A alliance partner must understand that we have to unitedly fight the BJP,'' he said.

Akhilesh had also, after the results of the recent Assembly polls, sought to allay the apprehensions that there were cracks in the opposition alliance saying that such results (Congress' defeat in MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh) were common in a democracy and that they needed to prepare well to take on a big party like BJP.