As Akhilesh offers Congress 11 LS seats, numbers show why SP is INDIA pivot in UP

Amid the tumult in the INDIA bloc, with the JD(U) walking out in Bihar and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ruling out alliances in West Bengal and Punjab, respectively, the Samajwadi Party (SP) sprang a surprise when its chief Akhilesh Yadav apparently unilaterally announced Saturday that the party would give the Congress 11 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.

Sources in the Congress said the party was still hoping for 15-16 seats.

Meanwhile, the SP has also stitched a deal with its ally and another INDIA partner, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), giving it 7 Lok Sabha seats in its stronghold of western UP.

The INDIA bloc’s seat-sharing negotiations for UP have so far been difficult, made tougher by the fact that the three between them won just a handful of seats due to the BJP’s dominant performance both in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

In 2019, when the SP had an alliance with the BSP and RLD, the Akhilesh Yadav-led party had won 5 seats, the Congress just 1 (Rae Bareli, with even Rahul Gandhi losing from Amethi), and the RLD none. In 2014, the Congress, in alliance with the RLD, had won just 2 seats and the RLD did not win any. The SP had won 5 seats then.

This time, among the seats the SP has ceded to the Congress are its bastions of Amethi and Rae Bareli. Reports suggest the other seats the Congress may contest include Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Bareilly, Jhansi, Kanpur, Varanasi and Sultanpur.

The SP has reportedly demanded, in turn, one seat in Madhya Pradesh as part of INDIA – either Khajuraho or Tikamgarh, both seats the BJP had won comfortably in 2019 and 2014, with the Congress finishing a distant second and the SP third or fourth.

The nine of the 11 seats the SP has reportedly offered to the