LS polls: Our 17-seat offer final, ball in Congress court now, says Samajwadi Party

On Monday, the SP chief said the seat sharing talks between the two parties was in an advanced stage.

After making its ‘17-seat final offer’ to the Congress for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Tuesday said there will be no further negotiations on seat sharing from its end and that the Congress should take a call on the issue now.

On the other hand, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid echoed hope that the alliance will be on track, saying the talks were in final stages. The list of 17 seats that the SP offered to the Congress on Monday included Amethi, Rae Bareli, Kanpur, Fatehpur Sikri, Bansgaon, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Maharajganj, Varanasi, Amroha, Jhansi, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Hathras, Barabanki, and Deoria.

“This is the final list from us that even accommodated several of the seats that we were originally not ready to concede to Congress. These include seats such as Saharanpur, Barabanki or Deoria. There will not be any changes from our side anymore. It’s up to Congress now to either accept or reject it,” said a senior SP leader aware of the development.

The ‘final offer’ was made when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was arriving in Amethi on Monday. As per a key negotiator from the SP, the Congress has not responded to the offer. However, the Congress leadership said the alliance had not been called off. On Monday, the SP chief said the seat sharing talks between the two parties was in an advanced stage.

“Right now, talks are going on, lists have come from them, we have also given them the list. The moment, seat distribution is done, Samajwadi Party will join their nyay yatra,” Akhilesh had said. Eventually, he did not participate in Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Rae Bareli on Tuesday. Three days are still left in yatra’s Uttar Pradesh leg.

Meanwhile, the SP released its third list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls taking the number of declared names to 31 on Tuesday. The first list had 16 candidates, the second 11 and the third list 5 (including a change of candidate on one seat).

The SP finalised the list after multiple deliberations telephonically with the Congress top leadership, including Bhupesh Baghel, Mukul Wasnik and Priyank Gandhi, said the SP sources.

On February 12, the SP wrote a letter to Congress leader Mukul Wasnik saying that the SP submitted the final list after a series of talks over the last three days and would now like to proceed with seat-sharing talks with other allies on the remaining seats and soon start preparation for polls.

However, after more discussions with the Congress, the SP even amended this list and then gave Congress the final list of the 17 seats on February 19. Before this on February 6, the Congress had submitted a list of 25 seats it wanted.

That list from the Congress to the SP included Barabanki, Dharaura, Sitapur, Phulpur, Prayagraj, Saharanpur, Amroha, Bijnor, Farrukhabad, Aligarh, Moradabad, Bhadohi, Bahraich, Shravasti, Domariyaganj, Maharajganj, Deoria, Varanasi, Lucknow, Kaiserganj, Amethi, Rae Bareli, Kanpur, Fatehpur Sikri and Bansgaon.

After discussions between the two parties between February 12 and 13, there was another round of talks with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and it was after this discussion that the SP also conceded Saharanpur, Barabanki and Amroha to the Congress. Congress, sources say, intends to field BSP MP from Amroha Danish Ali as its candidate from the seat.

The SP also conceded Saharanpur seat to the Congress as the Congress intends to field Imran Masood who had lost the 2014 LS polls on the seat to BJP’s Raghav Lakhanpal.

However, the SP sources said the Congress had been adamant on Moradabad Lok Sabha seat that the SP’s ST Hasan won in 2019 LS polls. “There was no question of conceding the seat. We will field the sitting MP ST Hasan from the seat,” said another SP leader preferring anonymity.

Even as the SP has declared candidates on 31 seats, including Dharaura, Farrukhabad, Bahraich, and Varanasi which are in the list of the final 17 seats for Congress, an SP leader said: “If the Congress accepts the deal, the SP may withdraw its candidates from these four seats”.

If the alliance does not materialise, it will be the second biggest jolt for the Congress after Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee declared her intent to contest 42 LS seats in West Bengal alone. The Congress, which once dominated the political landscape in India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh, has been fighting for its survival.

The grand old party had won 21 seats in the state in the 2009 general election. However, its seat tally fell to a dismal two in 2014 when the Bharatiya Janata Party had won 282 seats. In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Sonia Gandhi was the lone Congress MP from the state as her son Rahul Gandhi lost to BJP’s Smriti Irani.

The SP, on the other hand, had contested the 2019 elections in an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). The SP had won five seats while the BSP had won 10 then.

Cong sure of seat sharing: Khurshid

Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid said seat-sharing talks were going on. He further said there was, however, some strain as the talks were in final stages.

“The Samajwadi Party wanted to wind up talks before Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’s entry (to UP), but this could not be done. We are, however, sure the seat sharing will be finalised,” said Khurshid, who is one of the negotiators from the Congress side, over the phone.

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