Lok Sabha Elections 2024: INDIA bloc’s seat sharing finalised; SP and others get 63 seats, Cong 17

The Congress will contest 17 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and the remaining 63 seats will be for Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) and other alliance partners of the INDIA bloc. While addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Congress Uttar Pradesh in-charge Avinash Pande said, "I am delighted to tell you that it has been decided that in Uttar Pradesh the INC will contest on 17 seats and the remaining 63 seats will have candidates from the INDIA Alliance - from SP and other parties."

This is the first major seat-share deal announced by the opposition alliance, which was formed in June to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra reportedly had a significant influence on the seat-sharing negotiations between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress. According to sources, Priyanka was the one who approached Akhilesh Yadav and kept Rahul Gandhi informed.

The Congress-Samajwadi seat-share deal comes a day after Akhilesh Yadav gave the national party sort of an ultimatum - 'complete talks or I won't participate in Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra'', which is now in UP.

The announcement is a major encouragement to the coalition, which has had difficulty staying together since its inception in June of last year and has conflicts about seat-sharing at the top of its list of issues to be resolved. 

The bloc, led by the Congress, has already seen the exit of Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) boss Nitish Kumar and is almost certain to also lose Jayant Chaudhary's Rashtriya Lok Dal in UP.  Meanwhile, in Bengal, the governing Trinamool Congress announced that it will run independently for the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state following the Congress's Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury's constant criticism of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.