War of words begins as Cong-SP seat talks stuck

Posted: Sep 17, 2008 at 0135 hrs IST

New Delhi, September 16 Seat-sharing talks between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP) have hit a roadblock with the two parties refusing to concede any ground on their claims on about a dozen seats. After their second round of talks on September 8, the two sides had decided to formally exchange their “final list” of seats, including the contentious ones on which they wouldn’t compromise, on September 13 and meet two days later to take a final call on it. Neither has the lists been exchanged, nor has the meeting taken place.
Top leadership of the two parties, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, are now likely to sort out the differences, according to Congress sources. So far, the negotiations have been led by Rahul Gandhi, Digvijay Singh and Rita Bahuguna Joshi from the Congress, while the SP interlocutors include Amar Singh and Ram Gopal Yadav.
In the last meeting, the Congress had floated the idea of “friendly contests” on some seats, but the SP refused. The contentious seats include Farrukhabad, Pratapgarh, Mora-dabad, Kushinagar, Rampur, Gonda, Fatehpur Sikri, and Domariaganj among others.
The Congress, which had initially laid claims on 30 seats, later came down to 26, while the SP, which had initially offered 12 seats, conceded about half-dozen more during the two rounds of negotiations, said Congress sources. The ruling party at the Centre is, however, reluctant to settle for less than 25 seats on the plea that delimitation of constituencies had changed the “ground situation” in favour of Congress.

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UP: SP, Cong to jointly contest LS polls

September 01, 2008 17:11 IST

The Samajwadi Party and Congress on Monday decided to jointly contest the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh [Images], with the SP also seeking alliance in four other states including Madhya Pradesh [Images], Maharashtra and Karnataka.

After a marathon four-hour-long talk with a Congress delegation led by party general secretary Rahul Gandhi [Images], SP general secretary Amar Singh [Images] said that the seat-sharing would be carried out with "winnability" as the criteria in the state.

Sending out a signal of warmth and goodwill towards the Congress leadership, Singh told reporters that if in any eventuality, the alliance does not work out, "we will not oppose Sonia Gandhi [Images] and Rahul in their constituencies".

The SP leader said that talks in which AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh and UPCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi also participated, were held in cordial atmosphere and the overriding sentiment was one of unity to face the challenges ahead.

"Just like the Congress is asking for more seats in UP, despite being weak there, similarly we also asked them to help us in states like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand [Images] and Karnataka, where we have a marginal presence," Singh said implying thereby that the SP was in favour of a broad-based alliance comprising several states.

"Though Digvijay Singh and Rita Bahuguna Joshi are not authorised to speak about any other state apart from UP, I took the advantage of Rahul's presence and sought the Congress' alliance in other states also," the SP leader said.

He added that in UP, both the parties would field strong candidates with grassroot support and who could give a tough fight to their opponents

India's News.Net
Monday 1st September, 2008 (ANI)

New Delhi, Sep 1 : The Congress and the Samajwadi Party are to hold seat sharing talks for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh today.

The Congress side, which is to be led by Rahul Gandhi, will consist of the party General Secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, Digvijay Singh, and the State Congress president, Rita Bahuguna Joshi

The Samajwadi Party side will be represented by party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, General Secretary Amar Singh and Mulayam's brother Ram Gopal Yadav, also a General Secretary of the party.

Digvijay Singh expressed confidence about reaching an agreement on seat sharing arrangement, and added that it would be pragmatic, realistic and honourable for both sides.

Recently, the Samajwadi Party's support had helped the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government to win a trust vote in the Lok Sabha after Left allies withdrew support over the government's decision to go ahead with the next steps in the US-India civil nuclear cooperation deal.

Both parties have started preparations to jointly take on UP Chief Minister Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the coming general elections.

At present, the Samajwadi Party is the largest party in Uttar Pradesh in terms of the number of Lok Sabha seats it has - - 39 out of 80 seats. The Congress has just nine seats.

Rahul Gandhi met Amar Singh on Friday to take the discussions between the two parties forward. Besides, the Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party favours tie-ups with the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka

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