‘Cordial alliance’: Samajwadi Party offers 11 Lok Sabha seats to Congress in Uttar Pradesh for upcoming election

financialexpress.com:

Amid the uncertainty in the INDIA bloc grouping ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, a good news made its way, with the Samajwadi Party on Saturday announcing that it will share 11 seats to the Congress in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming polls.

The SP and the Congress are part of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, or INDIA, which is a grouping of 28 Opposition parties to take on the BJP-led NDA in the Lok Sabha polls. The state of Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha seats.

“Our cordial alliance with Congress is off to a good start with 11 strong seats,” Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said in a post on X.

“This trend will move forward with the winning equation. ‘India’ team and ‘PDA (Pichada (backwards), Dalits and Alpasankhyaks (minorities)’, strategy will change history,” he added.

कांग्रेस के साथ 11 मज़बूत सीटों से हमारे सौहार्दपूर्ण गठबंधन की अच्छी शुरुआत हो रही है… ये सिलसिला जीत के समीकरण के साथ और भी आगे बढ़ेगा।

‘इंडिया’ की टीम और ‘पीडीए’ की रणनीति इतिहास बदल देगी।

If the Congress agrees to the deal, the state of UP will be the first state where the INDIA bloc will have a seat-sharing arrangement. In the last general elections, which was held in 2019, the Congress had won one seat, and SP had won five.

Reacting to this, UP Congress chief Ajay Rai said that the Congress leader Mukul Wasnik-led national alliance committee of Congress is taking a decision in the matter.

Congress general secretary, communications in-charge, Jairam Ramesh said constructive seat-sharing talks are on between senior party leader Ashok Gehlot and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, and it will inform when a formula is finalised.

“When a seat-sharing formula is finalised we will inform you. But today Akhilesh ji has