Victory, not number of seats, key: Akhilesh amid Congress seat-sharing row

Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav. File | Photo credit: PTI

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday (Oct 4, 2026) said how many seats the party contested was not as important as ensuring that the Indian National Development and Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc wins the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections due in early 2027.

The motivation should be that communalism will never raise its head again and democracy, the Indian constitution and reservations have not been harmed by the divisive Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), so harmony has blossomed again in the country, Mr Yadav said.

“When the purpose is clear, things go hand in hand. If you look at the goal, the path becomes easier. It is not important how many seats there are in the alliance or which seat goes to whom; the important thing is that we all have to ensure the victory of the alliance. Let us repeat again: it is not a seat, but a victory. This victory will be more than the victory of the parties, it will be the joint victory of all parties, it will be the victory of all parties. the fight so that communalism can never raise its head again and so that democracy, the constitution and reservations have not been harmed by BJP, and the country’s harmony, progress and prosperity will blossom again,” Mr. Yadav wrote on the X social media platform.

Amid Mr. Yadav’s statement, a war of words continued between SP and Congress party leaders over seat sharing and the number of seats the Congress would contest in the 2027 UP Assembly elections.

UP Congress in-charge Rajendra Pal Gautam took on SP Lok Sabha MP Shivpal Singh Patel’s statement that the Congress should not expect more than 50 seats. “Then he (Mr Patel) should decline – he should make it clear that he does not want to form an alliance. At least it should be fair. What was the need to make such a light statement?” said Mr. Gautam.

Uttar Pradesh has a 403-member assembly.

“Both parties will win and form a government in an alliance. When did we talk about defeat? We are also talking about victory. Elections are not won by one person, but by parties. The public votes for a party. There are one or two people with such a high profile and so popular with the voters that they can win independently. Otherwise, the party fights the elections. From the electoral point of view, it is a victory for the El ideology party, the Congress party is number one in the country,” said Mr. Gautam.

Former UP minister and senior SP leader IP Singh reminded the Congress that a delegation of senior SP leaders waited at the door of former Congress CM Kamal Nath till the last day of ticket distribution in the 2023 Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, “but the Congress did not give a single seat to the SP in Madhya Pradesh”, Mr Singh said.

“The Congress should remember that it would not be easy to win the six Lok Sabha seats in UP in the 2024 general elections, of which two MPs were from the SP, without the support of the Samajwadi Party. When needed, the Congress will get support from the SP and regional parties, but the door is closed when it comes to sharing,” Mr Singh said.

Published – 04 Oct 2026 20:15 IST