Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has asked party leaders to keep their views and concerns on seat-sharing negotiations with the Congress within internal party forums, as differences emerged ahead of formal discussions for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
Yadav made the appeal while speaking to reporters at an event in Lucknow, following public comments by SP MP Shiv Pal Singh Patel on the Congress’s reported demand for 150 seats.
“I would like to tell all our leaders that whatever opinions or concerns they have regarding seat-sharing should be shared with us,” Yadav said, urging party members not to air their differences publicly.
Patel had described the reported demand as unrealistic and warned that assigning an excessive number of seats could affect the alliance’s prospects. He referred to the parties’ performance in the previous Assembly election, when the Congress won two seats while the SP secured 125.
“Given the current circumstances, the Congress party’s demands are highly unreasonable. They currently have two MLAs, whereas we have 125. Based on this ratio, they should receive seven or eight seats… We can give them even 50 seats; anything beyond that would simply mean wasting seats and risking defeat,” Patel said.
The SP MP said the Congress’s realistic capacity was around 25–30 seats and added that the final decision on the allocation would be taken by the SP national president.
The remarks triggered friction between the two INDIA bloc allies before formal seat-sharing talks. Aradhana Mishra, the newly appointed Uttar Pradesh Congress president, played down the state-level exchanges and said the arrangement would be decided by the national leadership of the INDIA bloc and the top leadership of its constituent parties.
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