LUCKNOW Setting clear boundaries ahead of the 2027 UP Assembly polls, the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Thursday pushed back against reports of the Congress eyeing a three-digit seat share in a pre-Diwali alliance pact, asserting that “winnability” will be the sole criterion for distributing tickets.
Highly placed sources within the SP maintained that the party is closely analysing recent voting patterns, local organisational strength, and candidate viability rather than conceding a large block of seats based on the Congress’s national profile or its improved tally in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He stated that the successful 2024 INDIA bloc alliance with the Congress will continue for the 2027 Assembly polls, but candidate selection and seat-sharing will be decided solely on winnability. Party sources indicated that the SP is analysing recent voting patterns, local organisational strength and candidate viability rather than conceding a large block of seats based on the Congress’s national profile or its improved showing in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. sources stressed that the final number will flow purely from winnability assessments, not fixed quotas While the SP has in earlier reports been linked to offers in the range of around 60-65 seats.
“The Congress top leadership should first form an alliance committee to start primary-level discussions with counterparts in our party. Subsequent to that, issues will be discussed between the top leadership of both parties. It is unfortunate that some leaders are fixing alliance seats through media discussions. This is against the spirit of the alliance,” he added. SP president Akhilesh Yadav has repeatedly underlined this position. “Gathbandhan bhi hoga, gathbandhan ke saath challenge bhi, baat humare liye seat ki nahi hogi, jeetne wali seat ki hogi. Jo jeete woh seat le le” (there will be an alliance, and there will also be challenges with it.
“Any kind of media statement regarding seat sharing is not in the interest of the alliance, and what individual leaders say or claim is of no importance to us,” said former MLC and senior SP leader Udaiveer Singh. For us, it will not be about seats but about winnability, whoever can win a seat should get it),” Yadav said while launching the party’s campaign from Rae Bareli in September this year.
Numbers for the sake of numbers help no one. In the 2022 UP Legislative Assembly polls (403 seats), the BJP won 255 seats with 41.29% of valid votes, according to official EC data. The SP secured 111 seats with 32.06%. The Congress won just two seats with a 2.33% vote share, despite contesting the vast majority of constituencies. The Rashtriya Lok Dal (then allied with the SP) won eight seats, while the Bahujan Samaj Party managed only one seat despite a 12.88% vote share. The broader SP-led alliance finished with around 125 seats against the NDA’s roughly 273. “In 2022, the Congress’s statewide performance was minimal. In 2024, targeted seats delivered better results. For 2027, we will look at Assembly segments where any ally has proven strength, recent margins and candidate acceptability.
“Data from the Election Commission does not lie,” another SP source said. As Akhilesh ji has said time and again, the alliance continues, but only winnability decides the seats,” he added.
