Congress to contest 105 seats in UP, seals alliance with Akhilesh's SP

Lucknow: The Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) on Sunday resolved differences over seat sharing for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh polls, with the Congress getting 105 seats to contest.

According to reports, Congress leaders said that the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP has offered the party 105 seats, an offer which has been accepted. On Saturday, the Congress had asked for 110 seats and had rejected an offer of 99.

After initial talks failed to solve the deadlock, Congress President Sonia Gandhi had stepped in late on Saturday.

On Sunday, Congress leader Ahmed Patel denied reports that junior leaders of the Congress had been involved in the negotiations. “Discussions took place at the highest level, between Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav, Priyanka Gandhi and others,” he asserted.

The fate of the SP-Congress alliance hung in the balance on Friday after Akhilesh Yadav announced candidates for 191 seats, of which 7 seats were already held by Congress MLAs. This ruffled feathers in the grand old party and put the possibility of an alliance in doubt.

SP leaders had at the time said that no more than 80 to 85 seats would be allotted to the Congress.

Meanwhile, the SP is set to release its election manifesto on Sunday.

403 Assembly seats in UP go to the polls starting February 11. The ruling SP, which recently emerged from a feud between Akhilesh and his father Mulayam, has claimed that an alliance with the Congress would help the coalition win over 300 seats.