Ahead of the next round of talks on seat sharing between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, SP general secretary Amar Singh on Friday said that the party was ready to concede only about a dozen seats to the Congress in Uttar Pradesh and ruled out “friendly fights” during the Lok Sabha polls. He added that the party was not prepared to concede the seats it had won in the last elections to the Congress.

The SP’s decision would affect UP Congress leaders like Noor Bano, Salman Khursheed and Ratna Singh, as Singh said that the party was not going to let go seats like Rampur, Farrukhabad, and Pratapgarh where these leaders were staking their claims.

Hinting at the Congress’s declining performance in the Hindi heartland, Singh mentioned that in 2004 Lok Sabha elections the Congress had won only nine seats. The seat sharing could be on the basis of the 2004 Lok Sabha elections or the “RJD model” adopted by Lalu Prasad Yadav in Bihar, Singh added. If the Bihar model is adopted, then only eight seats could be given to the Congress, he said noting that Lalu had given only four out of 40 seats in Bihar to the Congress. Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha seats.

Opposing the Congress’s idea of “friendly fights” in a few seats, he said, “in such an eventuality, there will be friendly fights in 78 seats and the SP will extend support to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in Rae Bareli and Amethi respectively”.

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