A statement by Congress in-charge created a stir in UP politics, demanded 50-50 from Akhilesh Yadav, what is the meaning of Mayawati’s praise?

A tremendous stir has already started in the political circles regarding the upcoming assembly elections 2027 in Uttar Pradesh. The first big and clear picture of the tussle regarding seat distribution within the opposition India alliance has come before the public.

The newly appointed Congress in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, Rajendra Pal Gautam, as soon as he took command, has made a huge and unexpected claim to the Samajwadi Party (SP) to contest the elections on ‘equal’ seats. Gautam has not only presented his aggressive claim on half the seats in Uttar Pradesh, but has also praised Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, which has brought a new and very interesting twist in the politics of the state.

The oldest party of the country is adamant on 50-50 formula

According to media reports, the new Congress in-charge of Uttar Pradesh has expressed his wish in very clear words. He says that he personally wants to see exactly equal participation of both the parties in this alliance of Uttar Pradesh. However, he also added that the final and final decision on seat sharing will be taken by the top leadership of both the parties together, but this time Congress is going to present its case very strongly and aggressively for 50 percent seats on the alliance table.

What is the political mathematics of the past and present of 403 seats?

There are a total of 403 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh. If we examine its old political history, then exactly 10 years ago i.e. in the 2017 elections, both these parties had joined hands. At that time, Samajwadi Party had fielded its candidates on 298 seats, while Congress had won 105 seats. However, there was friendly competition between the two at many places and ultimately that alliance completely disintegrated due to the fierce storm of BJP.

After this, both the parties came together again in the last Lok Sabha elections, where they got a resounding success. Out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP, SP contested 62 and won 37 seats, while Congress won 6 out of 17 seats.

New strategy to put pressure on Akhilesh Yadav

Congress, enthused by the excellent and shocking results of Lok Sabha elections, seems to be in a mood to demand more than 150 seats from SP in the assembly elections this time. On the other hand, if insiders are to be believed, Samajwadi Party is not at all in favor of giving more than 70 to 80 seats to Congress. In such a situation, Rajendra Pal Gautam’s latest statement of ‘equal share’ is being considered as a part of a well-planned strategy to directly corner Akhilesh Yadav and create huge political pressure on him.

The real problem with the Chief Minister’s chair and seats

Congress strategists argue that even when SP was in power with absolute majority in 2017, it had given 105 seats to Congress, so this time when the performance of Congress has improved a lot at the grassroots level, its share should be bigger. Congress feels that since Akhilesh Yadav is seeing himself in the race for the post of Chief Minister, he will never take the risk of angering a big national party like Congress before the elections. Congress leaders believe that if they get respectable seats in the alliance, they can easily transfer their traditional Dalit and Brahmin votes to the Samajwadi Party.

Open invitation to Mayawati to come along

Rajendra Pal Gautam has not only staked his big claim on the seats, but he has also extended an open hand of friendship towards BSP chief Mayawati. He said that to save the Constitution, all the big leaders who talk about the rights of Bahujan Samaj will have to come on one platform. Describing Mayawati as a very tall and strong leader, he said that he has always respected sister from the heart.

Interestingly, only last month, some top Congress leaders had suddenly reached Mayawati’s bungalow in Lucknow without any pre-planned programme, even though they could not meet face to face at that time. Now, pictures of Honorable Kansiram have also started being displayed on big platforms of Congress, which is a sign of a big political change.

Chakravyuh to stop the growing influence of Chandrashekhar Azad

Political analysts believe that the graph of young leader of Dalit community and MP Chandrashekhar Azad in Uttar Pradesh is going up very fast. In such a situation, by handing over the command of UP to Rajendra Pal Gautam, who comes from Dalit background, Congress wants to hit many big targets with one stone. Along with bringing Mayawati’s fragmenting traditional Dalit vote bank into her fold, she also wants to limit the growing political influence of Chandrashekhar Azad.

Even if a middle path is found in the end due to the strong personal relations between Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, this aggressive attitude of the new in-charge has definitely made the strategists of Samajwadi Party uncomfortable, because in the last assembly elections, Congress was reduced to just 2 seats while SP alone had won 111 seats.