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Amar Singh authorised to finalise seats with Congress

NEW DELHI: With no headway in the last two rounds of seat-sharing talks with the Congress for the Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party Parliamentary Board on Friday finalised its candidates for a majority of the 80 seats.

The Congress has demanded 31 seats, including a few held by the SP.

On the face of it the SP seems in no mood to relent, especially after the Congress failed to “accommodate” the new ally in the recent Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, but sources said an arrangement could be worked out on the seats that were not contentious.

Talks are stuck over Rampur, Moradabad, Pratapgarh, Farrukhabad, Gonda and Padrona, sources said.

SP chief Mulayam Singh on Friday announced that he had authorised party general secretary Amar Singh to finalise the seat sharing arrangements with the Congress.

“Amar Singh will meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her political secretary Ahmad Patel, senior leader Pranab Mukherjee and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi to wrap up the process of ticket distribution in Uttar Pradesh as soon as possible, so that poll preparation can begin,” Mr. Mulayam Singh told journalists here.

Significantly, Mr. Mulayam Singh omitted the name of AICC general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, Digvijay Singh. Mr. Digvijay Singh had reportedly floated the idea of “friendly fight” in the seats held by the SP and coveted by the Congress.

“There is no such thing as a friendly fight. Either you are fighting or not,” Mr. Amar Singh told journalists. Jayaprada, who was declared prabhari for Andhra Pradesh on Friday, for instance, won by about one lakh votes in Rampur. But the Congress wants to field Begum Noor Banu on that seat, to which the SP has not agreed. Similarly, the SP is not willing to have an understanding on rebels Raj Babbar and Beni Prasad Verma, whom the Congress was willing to accommodate.

Mr. Amar Singh said the seat sharing arrangement between the two parties was aimed at weakening the BSP and not for grabbing seats from each other.

He indicated that he would seek appointments with the Congress party leaders. In the past SP had maintained that even if talks on a pre-poll alliance failed, they would not contest in Rae Bareli represented by Sonia Gandhi and Amethi held by Rahul Gandhi.

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