While texting between Priyanka and Akhilesh continues, the congress said no to the 99 seats offer made by SP.The Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance which was promising to alter the political equations for Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh is in trouble.
Hectic negotiations for the last few days hit a wall on Friday when both sides, off the record, called the other’s demand for more seats unreasonable. Amidst building tension, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav started talks with Congress leaders through back channels to iron out the differences since Saturday morning.
At the heart of the trouble were two key issues – how many seats will each get and which seat will go to which party.
By evening the talks were stalled once again. Akhilesh Yadav, who started bargaining from not more than 85 seats in the morning made the final offer by late afternoon. He has now put them all in the Congress’s court by agreeing to give 99 of the 403 seats to the Congress. But the Congress wants nothing less than 110.
The two parties had sent out all the right signals till Monday last. But when the two camps sat down for seat sharing talks trouble erupted. Senior Samajwadi Party leaders today indicated that Akhilesh Yadav who has already announced 210 candidates – some even on seats held by Congress legislators – may announce few more if talks fail as time is running out and nominations for the first phase are ending on January 24.
The chief minister is not waiting for the alliance to be through in more ways. Tomorrow, Akhilesh Yadav will be releasing his party’s manifesto in Lucknow.
