SP-BSP-Congress hoping to win 75 seats in Uttar Pradesh.
According to top Congress sources, the party has virtually sealed deal with SP and BSP for seat sharing in the crucial battleground state of Uttar Pradesh. The alliance hopes to win 75 out of 80 seats. Significantly, the NDA won 73 seats in Uttar Pradesh in the last Lok Sabha elections, with Narendra Modi leading the way with comprehensive win from Varanasi.
Top Congress sources have confirmed that the seat-sharing talks are in advanced phase and Rahul Gandhi is monitoring it personally. The parties will also finalise which seats they will contest soon. Sonia Gandhi is yet to decide on contesting from Rae Bareily. In case she doesn't. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is likely to stand from there. The party believes that it would get a decent share of seats in Uttar Pradesh, much more than the numbers touted by media organisations.
According to sources, Congress President Rahul Gandhi is looking to stitch up alliance with ideologically similar parties. Hence there will be no truck with Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, as it believes in different ideology than Congress. In Maharashtra, the party will go with NCP.
The Congress party believes that BJP would fare poorly in the Hindi heartland of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, paving the way for opposition parties to gain power in 2019. Congress sources believe that Narendra Modi won't be the PM again if BJP falls below 230.
The party is looking to do well in the assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. But Congress President is not inclined to project a CM face in these states, in a bid to curb infighting.
In Telangana and Delhi, the party is likely to follow what the local units want. In all likelihood, the party will fight alone in those two states. The Delhi unit is firmly against any alliance with AAP. That sentiment is likely to be respected by Rahull Gandhi.
The party has decided to opt for a pragmatic view in a bid to stop BJP in 2019 polls. So in states where Congress isn't the main force against BJP, the party is willing to concede ground to others for sake of opposition unity. However in states where it has considerable clout, the party is looking to contest maximum number of seats. The PM face will only be decided after the election results are revealed.
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