New Delhi, Sep 30 (IANS) As Uttar Pradesh gears up for Assembly election early next year, the emerging dispute between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP) over seat-sharing somewhat resembles the tensions that surfaced within Bihar’s Mahagathbandhan during the 2025 state poll.
In both cases, the Congress chose to seek a larger role, while a stronger regional ally appeared resisting to concede its space.
In Uttar Pradesh, the Congress-SP partnership produced impressive results in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, giving the INDIA bloc a significant boost and reducing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dominance in the state.
Perhaps encouraged by that performance, Congress leaders have been pushing for an early seat-sharing arrangement where they reportedly want a “respectable” number for themselves.
That number, as per indications, could be “anything above 150 seats” in the 403-member strong uttar pradesh Assembly where other alliance partners would also seek “respectable” allocations.
The SP is believed to be more comfortable with an allocation of up to some 80 seats to its principal partner in the alliance.
The disagreement has already triggered public sparring between leaders of the two parties with reports of leaders on both sides exchanging barbs over respective political stature, organisational strength, and electoral contributions.
But the sparring politicians have mostly admitted that a final call will be taken by the “Central leadership” — implying Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav.
The situation overall bears certain similarities to Bihar, where Congress entered the 2025 Assembly election-negotiations buoyed by a perceived momentum generated by Rahul Gandhi’s new political outreach.
Congress leaders sought to convert what they considered renewed visibility into greater bargaining power within the Mahagathbandhan.
Yet, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav remained unwilling to accommodate all of Congress’ demands.
Congress had continued to press for around 70 seats, the same number it contested in the 2020 Assembly election.
Tejashwi Yadav reportedly reiterated that electoral performance would be a more important criterion than aspiration.
The RJD leadership pointed to Congress’ poor strike rate in 2020, when it won only 19 of the 70 seats it contested, and used that argument to justify limiting Congress’ ambitions.
Friction grew, as did speculations about widening differences.
At one stage, Tejashwi Yadav even declared that the RJD was prepared to contest all 243 Assembly seats, a move widely interpreted as pressure tactics directed at the Congress.
Despite Rahul Gandhi exhibiting more involvement in Bihar politics, the final terms of seat-sharing were implied as to be dictated primarily by the regional heavyweight.
Eventually, the Congress reconciled itself to a marginally lesser allocation of 61 seats, but Tejashwi portrayed a dominant position within the alliance structure.
In the final result, the Congress won only six seats, 13 less than in 2020 polls, while the Opposition challenge was crushed under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) juggernaut.
The Bihar experience also offered the Opposition alliance another lesson in the dangers of excluding smaller partners while larger constituents battle over numbers.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), an important ally of Congress and RJD in neighbouring Jharkhand, spent months seeking meaningful accommodation within Bihar’s Mahagathbandhan framework.
JMM leaders alleged that assurances were not honoured and accused the Mahagathbandhan leadership of failing to respect its interests.
The tensions escalated to the point where JMM openly threatened to chart its own course.
The party announced plans to contest independently and publicly accused alliance partners of betrayal and marginalisation.
Though it did not, but the episode led to the Opposition alliance winning one and losing the other among the two seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes in Bihar.
Among the four other seats that the JMM intended to contest, the RJD won one while the rest went to NDA constituents.
At the same time, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) repeatedly sought entry into the Mahagathbandhan.
AIMIM leaders wrote to the RJD leadership, and publicly expressed willingness to join the Opposition bloc and even offered to contest a limited number of seats.
However, those overtures were reportedly ignored, as claimed by AIMIM leaders who complained that despite approaching Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav for a tie-up, the proposal was not accepted.
The AIMIM formed a separate alliance and contested 28 out of the 79 the third bloc contested, and won five seats in a repeat of its 2020 state poll performance.
But overall, in a stunning show, the NDA broke into the Muslim-dominated Assembly constituencies in Bihar, traditionally seen as the Opposition’s strongholds, securing some 16 of these seats.
About 32 Bihar seats are Muslim-dominated, most of which lie in districts along the Nepal border, called the Seemanchal region that largely witnessed increased turnout in 2025 state polls.
Whether the Congress and SP can avoid repeating the Bihar story in Uttar Pradesh may ultimately determine not only the Opposition’s prospects against the ruling BJP in India’s most politically consequential state, but its political future as well.
–IANS
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