NEW DELHI: The Congress will contest at least 150 seats in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections early next year, a party leader said on Monday, asserting that the party is “entitled” to contest half the seats in an alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP).Seat-sharing talks with the SP are likely to be finalised in October, according to Rajendra Pal Gautam, the Congress’ Uttar Pradesh in-charge.“Seat-sharing will likely be finalised in October. Congress has candidates available to contest all 403 seats. Under the alliance, the Congress is entitled to 50% of the seats. We will not contest fewer than 150 seats,” Gautam told ANI.
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“For the last two months, Congress has been working on seat-sharing in Uttar Pradesh. Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi, KC Venugopal and I are looking after this work,” he added.The Congress and the SP are key constituents of the Opposition INDIA bloc in Uttar Pradesh. The two parties contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in the state as alliance partners, winning 43 of the 80 seats. The SP won 37 seats — its best performance in a Lok Sabha election — while the Congress secured six. The BJP, which rules both the Centre and the state, finished second with 33 seats, down from 62 in 2019.The previous SP-Congress alliance in Uttar Pradesh, for the 2017 assembly elections, was less successful. The SP won 47 seats and was voted out of power, while the Congress secured only seven seats.
