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With Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh scheduled for early next year, the Congress, which is planning to be in an alliance with Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, is looking to contest 115 to 120 seats in the 403-member Assembly, sources revealed. The Congress, which is eyeing a comeback in the state and wants to repeat the success of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when Dalits and minorities voted largely for the I.N.D.I.A. bloc partners, says it is building its organisation under the Sangathan Srijan initiative. It claims to be confident of securing a substantial number of seats in the alliance. Party insiders associated with the development said the Congress is planning to seek 115 to 120 seats from the Samajwadi Party in the Assembly polls, which it considers a respectable number that it deserves because of the way it was able to bring minority and Dalit voters back towards the I.N.D.I.A bloc in the 2024 elections. A party insider said that in the 2017 Assembly polls, the Congress, when it was in alliance with the Samajwadi Party, had contested 114 seats. Akhilesh Yadav was the Chief Minister then.
The SP, which had contested 311 seats in 2017, was reduced to 47, while the BJP secured a clear majority by winning 312 seats out of the 384 it had contested. He also stressed that in 2017, the SP had alliance partners such as O.P. Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, which contested eight seats and won four. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance, as part of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, dealt a major blow to the BJP. The party insider pointed out that the Congress and Samajwadi Party jointly won 43 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats, with the BJP going down by 29 seats and being reduced to 33 seats compared with the 2019 Lok Sabha results. The Samajwadi Party won 37 of the 62 seats it contested, while the Congress won six of the 17 seats it contested in 2024. The party insider claimed that the main reason for the I.N.D.I.A. bloc securing such a large number of seats in Uttar Pradesh was Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, during which he raised the issue of the Constitution. The party insider also said that with the BJP facing heat over the issue of paper leaks, and the Opposition raising the same issue as well as that of police excesses, among others, the Congress is hoping to make inroads into the BJP’s vote bank. The party insider said that as talks for the alliance are soon expected to begin between the two parties, the Congress is hoping to get 115 to 120 seats, citing the way Rahul Gandhi had led from the front on students’ issues, among others. Both parties will also raise the alleged donation embezzlement at Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir during the election campaign, as they feel the issue has connected with common voters and that religious sentiments have been hurt by the BJP, the party insider said.
He also said that Dalits and minorities find the Congress to be the main opposition force instead of the Samajwadi Party, whose vote share is among OBCs and the upper caste. Both parties are also looking to shift upper-caste as well as backward-caste voters towards themselves from the BJP. Seat-sharing talks will therefore focus on the respective strengths of both parties in the state. The insider claimed that the Yogi Adityanath-led government is facing antiincumbency after 10 years of rule over two consecutive terms. The Congress and the Samajwadi Party were unable to secure a good number of seats in the 2022 Assembly polls. The Samajwadi Party showed improvement in its tally, bouncing back by winning 111 seats, while the BJP was reduced to 255 seats from the 312 it had won in 2017. The Congress, which had gone into the 2022 Assembly polls with the theme “Ladki Hoon, Lad Sakti Hoon”, led by party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, managed to win only two of the 399 seats it contested on its own. The Congress is looking to learn from its last mistake and make a comeback in alliance with the Samajwadi Party.
Meanwhile, another party source said that the grand old party is planning not to give much funding to candidates this time, apart from campaign material. The source said the party is planning to ask candidates to show Rs 20 lakh in their bank account as an eligibility criterion for the ticket, while Rs 2 lakh may be shared from the party fund. The party gave between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 75 lakh to its candidates to contest elections during the last Assembly polls, the source said, adding that this time the party will only offer primarily campaign material from its side. This marks a major shift in the Congress’s policy