Cong likely to hold seat-sharing talks with Samajwadi Party for UP

NEW DELHI: The Congress National Alliance Committee is likely to meet with Samajwadi Party leaders for discussions on seat-sharing in Uttar Pradesh for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, on Wednesday in Delhi, party sources said.

The seat-sharing talks with the Samajwadi Party comes after the Congress held a meeting with Aam Aadmi Party leaders on Friday evening.

The meeting lasted for about two hours at Mukul Wasnik's house. The leaders of both parties described the meeting as a positive move, as per sources.

The Congress is expected to hold seat-sharing talks with all its alliance partners before launching the campaign for the Lok Sabha polls.

Earlier, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that at first, their team will take inputs from their party leaders in various states and then, after coming to a conclusion, they will discuss their demands with their alliance partners.

Kharge added that his party is focusing on all 500-plus constituencies and has appointed parliament observers for the same.

Explaining the motive behind such an all-out action, the Congress chief said that they are putting their efforts everywhere in case their alliance partner disagrees with any particular seat.

Meanwhile, in what is positive news for the INDIA bloc the Aam Admi Party and the Congress have tied up to contest the Chandigarh Mayoral polls.

This alliance signals a positive start for the two parties that are also negotiating on seat sharing in Delhi and Punjab. INDIA or 'Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance' is a group of opposition parties, including the Congress.

The parties have come together to take on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which is led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and prevent it from winning a third straight term at the Centre in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

As the 2024 Lok Sabha elections draw near, India's political landscape is undergoing a significant reshuffling.

The emerging INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) consortium is gearing up to challenge the NDA, setting the stage for an electoral showdown.

Earlier in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the NDA won 353 seats, the UPA stood at 91, and Others won 98.

The voting was staggered in seven phases between April 11 and May 19, in which around 67 per cent of the nearly 900 million eligible people exercised their franchise to elect 542 members of the Lok Sabha.