Congress Pushing For 175 Seats in UP

Even as the Congress has officially initiated talks for seat sharing, internal differences seem to be cropping up between the Samajwadi Party and Congress, which had forwarded a list of 175 seats it would like to contest in the upcoming elections of Uttar Pradesh.

Though the talks are at a preliminary stage, it is learnt that the SP feels that the demand was unreasonable since Congress does not have a strong base in the state and it had won only two seats in the last elections.

However, the SP wants to try and see that there is no strain in the alliance because whatever little vote shares the Congress and other parties have could help the alliance win a substantial number of seats and emerge as a strong opposition.

In the meantime, posters with images of Rahul Gandhi have appeared in UP with the slogan “200 seat haq hai hamara, UP ko hai Rahul Gandhi par bharosa”

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and UP Congress leaders on Sunday accused the BJP of putting up “fake” posters to create differences within the opposition INDIA bloc, and demanded action against municipal officials for allegedly allowing their display without the payment of the prescribed fees.

They said the BJP is worried about the opposition alliance. Yadav said in an X post that the posters have been put up without official permission or payment of the requisite charges. Akhilesh demanded action against the officials concerned.

He alleged that the “unauthorised” display of the posters is causing revenue losses to the local bodies, claiming that non-payment of fees could be aimed at concealing the identities of those behind the campaign. He said the SP was keep track of all such incidents and officials responsible will face action after coming to power.

In a post on X, Congress leader Rajendra Pal Gautam said the BJP can spread confusion or hatch conspiracies, but it won’t be able to break or even harm the opposition alliance.