Lucknow: With poll dates for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections to be announced any day, the possibility of a pre-poll alliance between the ruling Samajwadi Party and the Congress and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has gained momentum and the announcement is expected any day next week.
The alliance, if and when it is forged, is clearly a desperate move on the part of the ruling SP as well as the Congress to prevent the BJP from coming to power. Such an alliance will also help Samajwadi Party prevent its minority vote from being divided and provide a lifeline to the Congress, which is clearly fighting for survival in the state.
According to sources in both the SP and the Congress, talks are in an advanced stage and an announcement to this effect is expected in two-three days. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who is talking about the alliance in public for the past several days, has called the first timer MLAs of the SP at his official residence this evening to discuss the political situation.
The meeting is slated to continue tomorrow morning too, sources in the SP told UNI here today. However, a senior Congress leader on anonymity, told the agency that it is almost final that SP was ready to give 100 seats to Congress-RLD of which 78 seats will go to Congress, and rest to the RLD.
It has also been decided in principle that Mr Akhilesh Yadav will be the CM face of the alliance with the Congress to get a deputy CM post, if they strike majority in the elections. The last hitch for the SP is a nod from the Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Singh Yadav, who had earlier opposed this alliance. But it is said that the party supremo has now been convinced and would announce some major decisions next week.
Earlier, the SP was not ready to shed more than 70 seats for Congress and RLD but now it has been said they have agreed to give a total of 100 seats to both Congress-RLD. Besides the 29 seats the Congress won in the previous Assembly polls and 31 others on which it finished second, party sources said, there are some 50 other constituencies where the party has good chances.
In the light of this, the Congress may climb down from its earlier demand of contesting 125 seats to 100. However, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav is reportedly not willing to concede more than 80 seats. Another report also said the Congress is demanding the Deputy Chief Minister's post and around 100 seats. (UNI)