Congress said to have sealed poll pact with Akhilesh in UP, will drop its CM face Sheila Dikshit

In a major breakthrough reached merely hours before the Election Commission of India on Wednesday announced the schedule for Assembly elections in five states, the Akhilesh Yadav faction of the Samajwadi Party and the Congress are said to have given shape to an alliance in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh.

“The breakthrough was achieved last night soon after Akhilesh Yadav’s patch-up efforts with Mulayam Singh Yadav failed,” said a senior Samajwadi Party leader considered close to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister. “It will be a Bihar-like alliance and all partners will campaign jointly.”

Said the leader, who requested anonymity: “A formal announcement, however, is an issue of strategic significance and it would be made at an appropriate time.”

Congress officials also confirmed that the two sides have devised a seat-sharing formula and that an announcement will be made in next couple of days, once party vice-president Rahul Gandhi returns from his foreign trip.

The first hint of the deal was dropped early in the day when the Congress chief ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh, Sheila Dikshit, told a news channel, “Akhilesh Yadav is a much better chief ministerial candidate than I am.” She added that she would be happy to step aside for him.

Seat-sharing formula

Later in the day, Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil told mediapersons that the party was not averse to entering into an alliance. “So far we are planning to fight alone in all 404 seats of UP, but will see if we have to align with like-minded parties to stop communal-fascist forces which wear the mask of development and do destructive politics,” he said.

As per the agreement the parties have worked on on sharing seats, which may undergo some last-minute changes, the Akhilesh Yadav faction of the Samajwadi Party will leave around 100 seats for the Congress. “Twenty five to 30 seats have been kept aside for parties like Rashtriya Lok Dal, Krishna Patel faction of Apna Dal and Janata Dal-United,” the Samajwadi Party leader said.

On December 30, Akhilesh Yadav had released a list of 235 candidates. The list did not include a large number of constituencies that were being demanded by the Congress, including almost all the seats are currently occupied by the Congress. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister had also not fielded candidates in some of the constituencies where Congress had come number two in the Assembly election of 2012.

According to officials in the Congress, Sheila Dikshit would be dropped before a major national convention the party has called on January 11 in Delhi’s Talkatora Stadium as part of its all-India campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation decision.

“After dropping Dikshit, the party may pick someone younger to be projected as the deputy chief minister in UP,” a Congress leader said on condition of anonymity.