Congress, SP seat-sharing talks make little headway

NEW DELHI: With Samajwadi Party stoutly resisting the possibility of "friendly" fights with Congress, seat-sharing talks made little progress and the second round of negotiations ended in just 15 minutes on Monday. Both sides dug in as the SP has sought to restrict Congress’s claims to about a dozen seats.

Congress is keen that SP either concede or agree to a compromise on some of its sitting MPs while Mulayam Singh Yadav’s colleagues have argued that any such concession will only end up strengthening the rival BSP camp.

Both parties argue that compromises on 'key seats' would trigger revolts in their local units. As a solution, Congress is insisting that the alliance be sealed with 'friendly fights' in its traditional seats like Pratapgarh, Rampur, Farrukhabad and Padrauna.

But SP is not ready for this. Congress is worried if these seats were to go to SP's kitty, it could trigger a split in local units, besides reflecting badly on the negotiating skills of party interlocutors.

SP's Ram Gopal Yadav argued that if strong candidates were sacrificed, these individuals could either quit the party or simply not back Congress, implying that BSP would be the beneficiary in such an arrangement. The sticking point saw SP and Congress leave the table, with Yadav saying he would discuss the option of 'friendly fight' with Mulayam, who has also flown to Delhi. This may well be the only way to iron out virtually irreconciliable positions.

AICC is confident the deal would be sealed with the SP and Congress taking on each other in five to six seats. Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, who is part of team led by Rahul Gandhi and which includes UPCC chief Rita Bahuguna, said negotiations were cordial and a consensus had been struck on 90% seats. The negotiations could get tougher as sources said Samajwadis want to give only 12 seats to Congress — nine sitting MPs and three where Congress led SP in 2004 — Khurja, Domariaganj and Bareilly.

What is squeezing the scope for a compromise is personalised rivalries which the parties are not sure they can control and which would defeat the objective of containing BSP.

In Rampur, SP leader Azam Khan has a bitter battle going with former Congress MP Noor Bano, and would work against her even in an alliance while in Pratapgarh, CLP leader Pramod Tiwari and former MP Ratna Singh are unlikely to accept any decision to sit out for Akshaya Pratap Singh, a close aide of Kunda strongman Raja Bhaiyya.

SP is claiming Padrauna where independent MP Baleshwar Yadav, who joined the party during the trust vote, has sought nomination for Brahma Shankar Tripathi. AICC wants the seat for its MLA R P N Singh. The alliance has already set off a churn, with Kamlesh Paswan leaving SP in reserved Bansgaon seat as he saw no chance of getting a nod over Union minister Mata Prasad in an alliance.

Amid the bare-knuckle bargaining, Congress decision to take four SP MLAs in Madhya Pradesh has struck a sore point and, AICC sources said, the issue was brought to the notice of the top leadership.

Besides known seats, Congress sources said it had sought accommodation of SP rebel and actor Raj Babbar from Fatehpur Sikri, P L Punia from Barabanki and Beni Prasad Verma from Gonda.

But Samajwadis are learnt to be readying a BJP MLA for Sikri while they don't want to help Verma who is seen as a traitor. With the newfound allies eager to confront a strongly placed Mayawati with an eye on the post-poll scene, sources said Ajit Singh's RLD is also in contention, but was still to be discussed.

The RLD is seen as a factor in western UP and a broader alliance with him would not let Mayawati have a free run as in the Assembly polls.

However, AICC may want to get extra seats for him when the Samajwadis would want to get him coupled with the Congress share.
Source : Times Of India