UP: Cracks in INDIA Block Over Seat Sharing? SP Chief Says "Tit for tat" In Upcoming Lok Sabha Polls.

Lucknow: An intense tussle continues among the Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) over the issue of seat-sharing in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. SP president Akhilesh Yadav said it is up to the Congress to clarify its stand on the alliance among the INDIA bloc partners and whether sharing of seats would be applicable on the state or national level.

Interacting with media persons in Shahjahanpur, Akhilesh Yadav accused the grand old party of betrayal, asking who would trust the party if it behaved like this. 

Yadav alleged that Congress was giving "shabby treatment" to his party in the upcoming Madhya Pradesh assembly elections by not going for an alliance and said that SP would extend a 'tit-for-tat' response to the grand old party in seat-sharing in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha polls next year.

"If the Congress didn't want to give seats (in MP), they should have said it clearly. Today, the SP is fighting only on seats where it has its own organisation. Now, after Madhya Pradesh, I know that the INDIA alliance is for the (parliamentary) elections on a national level. If the Congress continues to behave like this, then who will trust them? If we fight with confusion in mind against the BJP Bharatiya Janta Party), then we won't succeed," Yadav said. 

The SP chief said that despite the INDIA alliance formation, the SP strategy would be based on working for the PDA (Pichada, Dalit and Alpsankhyak).

"PDA was formed first, and the INDIA alliance was formed later on, and I have said on multiple occasions that although the INDIA alliance is there, our strategy is of PDA and PDA will be the one who will defeat NDA (National Democratic Alliance)," the SP Chief said.

The SP president also said, "Had we known that the I.N.D.I.A alliance is not for Assembly polls, we would not have sent SP leaders to meet former MP chief minister Kamal Nath....we were assured six seats in MP, but nothing was given to us."

However, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) chief Ajay Rai accused the SP of "directly or indirectly" helping the BJP. They said Congress is ready to contest 80 seats in UP Lok Sabha polls. 

Rai said SP should not work to weaken Congress in Madhya Pradesh, saying that his party was in direct fight with BJP in that state. “Now, SP has fielded candidates on 20-odd seats (in MP)… Who will this action actually benefit is anyone’s guess. Is this not weakening the fight against divisive forces?” he said.

Rai also said the party does not rely on anyone’s mercy. They added the Congress is strengthening its organisation in the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh for the 2024 general election.

Earlier in Bareilly talking to reporters, Rai said, "Congress is back on the streets and reaching out to people. The party was built by our workers. At this crucial juncture, we need everyone’s support to improve our tally, we don’t want to disappoint them (party workers). Therefore, we have been focusing, from the organisational point of view, on all the 80 seats. If there is an alliance, the high command will decide how many and which seats the party will contest. The organisation is moving forward with the strategy of winning all 80 Lok Sabha seats."

Commenting over tussle and repercussions in upcoming Lok Sabha polls, an SP leader on the condition of anonymity told NewsClick, "'Congress leaders are living in fools' paradise. They are not giving us a few seats in Madhya Pradesh but demanding more than two dozen seats in Uttar Pradesh despite there being a Congress in UP. Merely demanding a particular number of seats is not enough. The party should tell us which are the seats it wants to contest and who will be its candidates so that we can assess if those seats can be won by the party (Congress)."

Earlier, the SP president, responding to a query by reporters on how many seats his party was asking for UP from the INDIA alliance for the 2024 polls, had said: “We are not asking for seats. The Samajwadi Party is giving seats to its alliance partners.”