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2w ago

SP and Congress Clash Over Seat Sharing as October Talks Loom

Congress demanding roughly 150 Assembly seats has drawn sharp public rebukes from senior Samajwadi Party figures and prompted Akhilesh Yadav to insist disputes be handled privately.

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Akhilesh Yadav issued a gag order to SP leaders on Saturday, directing them to keep their opinions on seat-sharing negotiations and the Congress strictly within internal party channels.
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SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said the focus should be on ensuring the alliance wins, rather than on which party contests how many seats. (File photo)

Overview

  • The dispute became public on Saturday, October 3, when Uttar Pradesh Congress in-charge Rajendra Pal Gautam said the party would not accept fewer than 150 seats and SP MP Shiv Pal Singh Patel called that demand unreasonable.
  • Akhilesh Yadav intervened after Patel’s remarks and ordered party leaders to keep seat‑sharing views inside party channels while urging that the alliance focus on winning rather than on counts.
  • Senior SP comments have included claims that Congress’s 2024 wins in Uttar Pradesh depended on the alliance and a charge that Rahul Gandhi avoided contesting Amethi, which Congress officials promptly rejected.
  • The SP is preparing a fallback plan to contest broadly on its own, identifying some 300 prospective candidates and organising work across as many as 350 constituencies, signaling a readiness for talks to fail.
  • Negotiations are scheduled to intensify in October and the outcome will test the INDIA bloc’s unity in Uttar Pradesh with immediate effects on candidate selection, local campaigning and control of symbolic seats such as Raebareli and Amethi.