Together on stage in Delhi, Congress and SP spar in Lucknow over seats and Swami Prasad Maurya

Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav appeared together at the INDIA bloc's rally in Delhi on 1 November. In Uttar Pradesh, where the two parties plan to fight the 2027 assembly election together, their leaders are publicly at odds over an OBC leader's entry into the alliance and over how many seats the Congress should get.

The Maurya question

Swami Prasad Maurya, a 72-year-old OBC leader from Pratapgarh, left the Samajwadi Party in 2024 and formed the Rashtriya Shoshit Samaj Party. A few days before the rally, ThePrint reported, he met Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and said his party wanted to join the INDIA bloc. On 2 November he posted a photograph with the Congress's UP in-charge, Rajendra Pal Gautam, and said they had discussed strategy for 2027.

The SP objects. Akhilesh Yadav said at a press conference in Lucknow, "Swami Prasad Maurya is not part of our alliance," and added, "He cannot be counted in our seat calculations."

Gautam said Akhilesh's remarks could be his personal views. "Why should there be any objection to his inclusion?" he asked. Maurya said he wants to contest some seats as part of the alliance without merging his party, and called Akhilesh the "number one enemy" of the PDA. Senior SP leader Udayveer Singh asked why the Congress was entertaining him, and urged its high command to step in. No response from the high command has been reported.

The seat gap

The larger dispute is over numbers in a 403-member assembly. Gautam told PTI, "we have submitted a list for 175 to 200 seats." Udayveer Singh told ThePrint that the claim of a 200-seat list was false. Outlook, citing the Indian Express, reported a Congress source putting the list at 180. Posters outside the party's Lucknow office read "200 seat haq hai hamara" (200 seats are our right).

What the SP will offer is harder to pin down, as most of the figures come from unnamed leaders. Outlook cited an SP leader saying 50 to 80, party sources saying Akhilesh wants the Congress below 100, and a Congress source saying the party might settle at 80 to 90. None of these is an official position.

On record, Akhilesh has said winning is what counts, and that "The Congress, the Samajwadi Party, and the INDIA bloc must be strengthened." SP MP Ramashankar Rajbhar said, "Our formula is set," and that the top leadership would decide.

Why the Congress is asking for more

The Congress points to 2024, when the alliance won 43 Lok Sabha seats in the state: 37 for the SP and six for the Congress, against the BJP's 33. The Congress led in 38 assembly segments and came second in 42. Priyanka Gandhi met state leaders on 19 October and advised them to focus on the quality of seats, according to Outlook.

The SP's case rests on the last assembly election. In 2022 it won 111 seats, and the Congress won two with 2.33 per cent of the vote. Sources told PTI that several SP leaders were unconvinced of the Congress's strength. Some Congress demands reportedly include about a dozen seats now held by SP MLAs.

The party recently replaced its state chief, Ajay Rai, with Aradhana Misra Mona, and some in the party see her as close to the SP leadership, Business Today reported.

What comes next

Business Today reported that leaders would soon sit down to discuss seats in detail, with winnability guiding the talks. Outlook, citing the Indian Express, said Akhilesh and Rahul have told their leaders that the partnership should not be put at risk. No date for the talks has been reported.