Going by 2022 UP results, why SP needs to be fulcrum of any INDIA alliance for LS polls

Parties have begun their campaign efforts for the Lok Sabha elections – with the BJP focusing its energies on the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22, even as the Congress rests its hopes on Rahul Gandhi’s east-to-west, 6,700-km Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.

The Opposition INDIA bloc, however, has a task on its hands if it wants to come together to take on the BJP. Aside from decisions on joint campaign efforts, the 28 constituents of the bloc are still working out the arduous seat-sharing negotiations.

Among the states where the partners expect difficult seat-sharing talks is Uttar Pradesh. The INDIA parties with a stake in the state that has 80 Lok Sabha seats include the Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). What is making their task tougher is that the three between them had won just a handful of seats due to the BJP’s dominant performance in the 2019 and 2014 general elections.

In 2019, when the SP had an alliance with the BSP and RLD, the Akhilesh Yadav-led party won five seats, the Congress just 1 and the RLD none. In 2014, the Congress, in alliance with the RLD, won just two seats and the RLD did not win any. The SP won 5 seats then.

The 2009 polls were far better for these parties – the Congress won 21 seats and the SP 23. But the political landscape in UP has changed considerably since then.

How then should the INDIA bloc parties decide on the most efficient and effective way to take on the BJP, which not only won a majority of the state’s Lok Sabha seats in the last two polls but also won two consecutive Assembly elections in 2017 and 2022?

At the first seat-sharing meeting between the Congress and SP held last week, the parties agreed that the performance in the 2022 Assembly