"Alliance With Congress On 11 Seats In Uttar Pradesh": Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav
For the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav has announced that the Congress and Samajwadi party have agreed for a deal to form an alliance in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
“Our cordial alliance with Congress is off to a good start with 11 strong seats… This trend will move forward with the winning equation. ‘INDIA” team and “PDA” strategy will change history,” Akhilesh Yadav wrote on X.
कांग्रेस के साथ 11 मज़बूत सीटों से हमारे सौहार्दपूर्ण गठबंधन की अच्छी शुरुआत हो रही है… ये सिलसिला जीत के समीकरण के साथ और भी आगे बढ़ेगा।
‘इंडिया’ की टीम और ‘पीडीए’ की रणनीति इतिहास बदल देगी।
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) January 27, 2024
“PDA” (Pichhde, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) is the term Samajwadi Party coined last year to connect with the electorate ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
This is expected to boost the political arithmetic of INDIA alliance in Uttar Pradesh, one of the crucial states in the country which has a total of 80 seats. Apart from the Congress, Jayant Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal has also made an alliance with Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh.
Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav”s seat sharing announcement came just few days after the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab rejected the alliance with the Congress for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In the 2019 election, the BJP, under the leadership of Narendra Modi cliched 62 seats in the state of Uttar Pradesh. While the Samajwadi party and Congress only managed to secure 6 seats, with SP holding 5 and Congress 1. The main parties were Congress, the BJP and the grand alliance between Samajwadi party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal.
Meanwhile, in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, BJP had its astonishing win in Uttar Pradesh as the party swept 71 seats, more than the UPA”s tally. BJP ally Apna Dal won in two seats. Indian National Congress allied with Rashtriya Lok Dal only managed to win two seats. Samajwadi party won five seats and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) did not win any seats.
In the 2022 assembly election held in Uttar Pradesh, BJP formed alliance with Apna Dal and Nishad Party won the second term with a total of more than 270 seats. In the 403 member-legislative assembly, NDA has managed to secure majority of seats. The Congress and the SP had contested separately in the 2022 Assembly elections. The SP had an alliance with the RLD and other smaller parties.
In the 2022 Assembly polls, the BJP was the clear winner with 255 of the 403 seats and 41.3% of the vote share. With its NDA allies, it won a total 273 seats and 43.3% of the vote share. The SP was the second largest party with 111 seats and 32.1% of the vote share, with the RLD winning 9 seats from 2.85% of the vote. The Congress, which contested 399 seats, won just 2 and 2.3% of the vote.
As of now, the INDIA bloc is facing some hurdles in West Bengal, Punjab and Bihar. Along with Mamata Banerjee, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwat Mann has also declared that the Aam Aadmi party will contest on all 15 Lok Sabha seats. And there are speculations that Nitish Kumar might quit from Mahagathbandhan in Bihar to join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Delhi and Punjab are the two region where the AAP and the Congress have remained at loggerheads.
In Maharashtra, Shiv Sena (UBT faction) leader Sanjay Raut has already said his party will contest on 23 Lok Sabha seats, says live mint. The seat-sharing talks in several other states, including the Uttar Pradesh, are yet to be taken up. As the election has neared, the INDIA bloc consortium will have to gear up faster to challenge the strategies of NDA to secure victory in the upcoming elections.
