MULAYAM, RAHUL, NITISH SET FOR TIE-UP IN U.P.

The SP is likely to give around 85 seats to the Congress, RLD and the JDU, with 60 going the Congress’ way. The RLD may get 20 and the JDU, 5.

The Samajwadi Party has agreed to spare 85 seats to the Congress, Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United, in information available exclusively to this newspaper. A source in the Congress said that much progress on seat-sharing talks was made during a couple of meetings between the Congress’ election incharge for Uttar Pradesh, Ghulam Nabi Azad and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, during the former’s visit to the state this week. The source exclusively revealed to The Sunday Guardian that Azad met Mulayam Singh Yadav on Wednesday and it was then that an agreement was finally reached.

The source said an announcement will follow once the high command approves the SP’s offer of seats to the Congress (likely 60), RLD (likely 20) and JDU (likely 5). “I think it is final, but the Congress leadership may want to make an increase in its share. This may take some time,” the source told The Sunday Guardian.

This newspaper was the first to report on 5 November that an alliance between the Congress and SP had been “agreed on principle” and Azad would be meeting Mulayam Singh Yadav for a seatsharing discussion in the days ahead. But Mulayam Singh Yadav on 10 November gave a statement to the press that the SP would fight the UP Assembly elections without a tie-up, hampering the likely meeting between him and Azad. This newspaper maintained in a story published on 19 November, quoting Congress sources, that the SP veteran’s statement was meant to dissuade the Congress from demanding a large number of seats and that back-channel talks were on. Although both Azad and Ajit Singh have refused to confirm an SP- CongressRLD-JDU grand alliance, a source in the Congress said “an agreement over seat sharing has been reached.” “Azad met Mulayam Singh twice during his UP visit recently. He met him on Wednesday. The SP has given the go- ahead for the alliance, agreeing to allot 85 seats that the alliance partners will have to adjust amongst themselves. Since the Con- gress and the RLD are yet to reach an understanding, an announcement will take time,” the source told this correspondent.

Azad, who returned to the national capital on Friday after campaigning in UP, told a news agency that “No discussions have taken place on the alliance and when the discussion has not taken place, then, there is no chance of seat distribution as well.” Ajit Singh, much on the same lines, told the media that “I haven’t had any meeting or talks with anyone in Congress in more than six months.”