'It's Not About Seat, But Jeet': Akhilesh Yadav's Comment Shows Even Congress Allies Do Not Trust Party's Winnability

Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav announced on Wednesday (23 October) night that INDI Alliance will field candidates on all nine seats in Uttar Pradesh (UP) assembly by-polls on his party symbol.

This does not come as a surprise because there were reports in the media earlier that the Congress might not contest any seat because it lacks confidence in its chances of winning the two seats offered by the SP.

Earlier, the Congress was staking claim over five seats but the SP unilaterally announced candidates for Phulpur and Majhawan in the Mirzapur district, where Congress wanted to contest.

After this, Congress was hopeful to contest in Ghaziabad, Khair in Aligarh district and Meerapur in Muzaffarnagar district seats. However, the SP reportedly offered it only the Ghaziabad and Khair seats.

But as the seat-sharing talks progressed, the Congress appears to have lost confidence to win any of them. Congress' UP president Ajay Rai changed his stance from Congress-centric to INDI Alliance-centric.

Ultimately, Yadav declared on X, "It's not about seats, it's about jeet (victory)," indirectly suggesting that the ally Congress is incapable of winning seats.

"Congress and SP are united and standing shoulder to shoulder for a big victory... SP strength has increased manifold with the support of the Congress party's top leadership and booth-level workers," he added.

Notably, both the SP and the Congress are weak in the seats that the SP offered to Congress, as per past electoral data.

The SP has won in Ghaziabad only once, that too in 2004 by-polls. The Congress also last won this seat in 2002. In the last four elections, Ghaziabad elected a BJP MLA thrice.

Similarly, in Khair, the SP got less than 8,000 votes in 2007, 2012 and 2017. In 2022, it contested the election in alliance with Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and gave RLD to contest this seat, which came third.

The Congress' performance is worse. It got only 1,500 votes here in 2022. In 2017, Congress contested in alliance with RLD and gave this seat to RLD, which came third.

Thus, Congress might have felt that instead of contesting a lost battle, it would be better to sit out so that at least the aura around the recent Lok Sabha victory could be maintained for a longer period.

The Congress was able to win six seats in UP in the 2024 Lok Sabha election in alliance with the SP. Notably, it could win only two seats in the 2022 UP assembly elections when it contested alone.