Fresh SP-Congress rift? Akhilesh Yadav skips key INDIA bloc meet as UP seat-sharing, Rajya Sabha polls loom

Leaders of parties in the opposition INDIA bloc are meeting in Delhi today for what is expected to be a key strategy session.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is skipping the meeting amid reported strain with the Congress over seat-sharing. Akhilesh, however, has officially decision to Rajya Sabha election work.

On 16 October, Rajya Sabha elections will be held for 10 seats falling vacant from Uttar Pradesh. Eight of the 10 outgoing seats are currently held by the BJP and one each by the SP and the BSP. The SP may field three candidates, though its current strength can secure victory of only two.

Reports, however, suggested that Akhilesh is skipping the meeting to avoid a face-to-face meeting with the Congress top leadership. If Akhilesh, Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi are seen together, the focus would quickly shift to the SP-Congress tussle over seat-sharing, according to India Today.

Congress wants to finish a seat-sharing deal at the earliest but Akhilesh is said to be not in a hurry to close a deal. Congress has candidates available to contest all 403 Assembly seats in the State. The party would not contest fewer than 150 seats under the alliance arrangement, the party’s state incharge Rajendra Pal Gautam emphasised.

The SP’s position is that the Congress should first identify its winnable candidates and the seats where it has a strong organisational presence and can fight on its own. Only after that does the SP want broader seat-sharing talks.

“Just as the BJP appears to be fighting from the outside but is united internally with its allies, something similar is happening between the SP and the Congress they may appear to be saying different things publicly, but internally, the two parties are together,” Akhilesh Yadav said recently.

‘Issues not in line with Congress’

On Akhilesh Yadav’s absence from the INDIA bloc meeting, DMK Spokesperson TKS Elangovan blamed the Congress party.

“Many of the parties there do not want to go with Congress, but ideologically, they are united. They share the same view and will oppose the BJP. Therefore, they do not need to attend an INDIA bloc meeting because every party knows the issues and is in line with the Congress. Attending the meeting alone is just a formality.”

On the INDIA Alliance’s stability, he said, “I think it is not stable because many of the parties have opposed Congress. They have even criticised their switching of alliances in Tamil Nadu. Many of the parties want the DMK with them,” he said.

DMK is not also attending the INDIA bloc meeting and has blamed the Congress for stitching up an alliance with the Vijay-led TVK in Tamil Nadu.

The rift in Congres-SP has been reflected on the ground too. On 24 September, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s visit to Raebareli, a Congress bastion, ahead of the next year’s assembly polls sparked a war of words between the allies. The grand old party announcing plans to enter SP strongholds and veteran Shivpal Yadav hitting back, saying it would not yield them any votes.

It started when Akhilesh kicked off his party’s campaign for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections by launching the ‘PDA Rath Yatra’ from Raebareli.

The move triggered a fierce backlash from its ally Congress, with the party’s UP chief Ajai Rai declaring that the grand old party would also visit SP bastions.

Congress won’t get votes in SP bastions: Shivpal

Reacting to Rai’s remarks, Samajwadi Party veteran and six-term lawmaker from Jaswantnagar, Shivpal Yadav, on Saturday asserted that Congress won’t be receiving any votes in SP bastions even if it tries to make inroads there.

“Anyone can indeed visit anywhere, so let them visit. Even if they (Congress) do try, they won’t achieve anything, any votes in whole Jaswantnagar,” Shivpal said, igniting fresh controversy over SP-Congress relationship.

Earlier, on 22 September, two prominent opposition voices from Western Uttar Pradesh sparred over which leader brings more value to the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance.

Samajwadi Party MP from Kairana Iqra Hasan and Congress MP from Saharanpur Imran Masood, both elected in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as part of the SP-Congress alliance, publicly pitched their respective party leaders to take on the BJP.

“Only Rahul Gandhi is the opposition voice across the country, which unnerves the BJP. Rahul ji has done the hard work and created a favourable atmosphere. So make no mistake, nothing is possible without Rahul ji, and no one should have any doubts about this,” Masood told PTI.

This happened on a day when BJP president Nitin Nabin toured western Uttar Pradesh to firm up the party’s poll strategy,

The Congress MP, who was earlier with the SP, has repeatedly called for an early decision on seat-sharing and described the Congress as the “big brother” in the alliance. SP leaders, however, have maintained that Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav would decide the alliance’s contours.

Iqra Hasan pitched SP chief Yadav as the key to the alliance’s prospects.

“Only Akhilesh Yadav is capable of defeating the BJP. On its own, the Congress won’t be able to achieve much,” she said.

The contrasting assertions come despite repeated statements by senior leaders of both parties about maintaining unity, suggesting differences in messaging among local leaders and alliance cadres.

2024 Lok Sabha election

The SP and Congress contested the 2024 Lok Sabha polls together in Uttar Pradesh and won 43 seats between them, with the SP winning 37 and the Congress six. The alliance also won the Faizabad seat, which includes Ayodhya, where the BJP won in 2019.

In the 2022 assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) registered a historic victory, marking the first time since 1985 that an incumbent government completed a full five-year term and returned to power with a full majority. As a result, Yogi Adityanath took the oath of office as Chief Minister for a consecutive second term.

The BJP won 255 seats in the 403-member UP assembly. The Samajwadi Party won 111 seats, and the Congress won two seats.