Crisis erupts after SP declares it can spare only 85 seats n Cong claims it was promised over 100
The Congress is making last-ditch efforts to revive its alliance talks with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh. The much-talked-about alliance has failed to take off as the Samajwadi Party announced that it could spare only 85 seats for the Congress which claims it was promised more than a hundred.
After a day of high drama, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi asked the party General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad to rush to Lucknow for talks with SP leaders on Saturday.
The party had earlier asked the UP unit chief Raj Babbar to come to Delhi to finalise Congress candidates after the breakdown of alliance talks. But when he was about to board a flight from Lucknow airport, he was told to stay put and revive talks with the SP along with Azad on Saturday.
"It is not yet all over," said Azad, when asked about the developments.
In Lucknow, SP leader Naresh Agarwal said there were still chances of reviving the alliance. He, however, blamed the Congress's 'stubbon approach' for the delay in hammering out the seat-sharing arrangement. He said that the SP President and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's decision on the issue would be final.
Congress spokesman Ajay Maken also refused to accept that the alliance talks had collapsed altogether, saying the party would be able to comment only after Azad meets Yadav. He refused to give any details of the agreement on the alliance even while an impression in the party headquarters was that the alliance is as good as dead.
Maken described as "unfortunate" the SP decision to announce the names of 191 candidates unilaterally that included nine seats of the sitting Congress MLAs. Later in the evening, the SP announced 18 more candidates, taking the total to 291 for the first three phases of the seven-phase Assembly elections.
Rahul blamed
A Samajwadi Party MP involved in the backdoor negotiations put the blame on Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for trying to bargain for 150 of the 403 seats. He said the Congress assumed that it can take advantage of the feud between the father and son in his party. He claimed that Rahul wanted the alliance announced by him and Akhilesh in Delhi to show it as a run-up to a national alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Akhilesh, however, insisted it would be done only in Lucknow. The SP had agreed to give a maximum of 103 seats to the Congress but with a condition that it will distribute them among all other alliance partners.
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