Victory, not number of seats, is the key: Akhilesh amid SP-Congress seat-sharing spat

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday (October 4, 2026) said how many seats which party contested was not as important as ensuring the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc won the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, due early in 2027.

The motivation should be that communalism never raises its head again, and democracy, the Constitution of India, and reservations were not harmed by the divisive Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), so that harmony blossomed again in the country, Mr. Yadav said.

“When the purpose is clear, it goes hand in hand. If your eyes are on the destination, the journey becomes easy. The important thing is not how many seats are in the alliance or which seat is going to whom; the important thing is that we all have to ensure the alliance wins. Let us repeat again: it is not about the seat but about the victory. This victory will be more than the victory of the parties in our alliance. It will be the victory of the joint effort of all of us, the victory of continuous struggle, so that communalism can never raise its head again, and democracy, the Constitution, and reservation are not harmed by the BJP, and the harmony of the country, the progress and prosperity of the country, blossoms again,” Mr. Yadav posted on social media platform X. 

Amid Mr. Yadav’s statement, a war of words on seat-sharing, and the number of seats the Congress would contest in the 2027 U.P. Assembly election, continued between the SP and Congress party leaders.

U.P. Congress in-charge Rajendra Pal Gautam took on SP Lok Sabha MP Shivpal Singh Patel’s statement that Congress should not expect more than 50 seats to contest. “Then he (Mr. Patel) should refuse — he should clearly say that he does not want to form an alliance. At least the matter should be fair. What was the need to make such a light statement?” Mr. Gautam said.

Uttar Pradesh has a 403-member Assembly.

“Both the parties will win and form the government in an alliance. When have we talked about defeat? We too are talking about victory. It is not one person who wins the election, but the parties. The public votes for a party. There are one or two people with such a high stature and so well-liked by the electorate that they can even win independently. Otherwise, the party fights the election and the party wins the election. Elections are fought on the basis of ideology. In terms of ideology, the Congress party is number one in the entire country,” Mr. Gautam said. 

Former U.P. Minister and senior SP leader I.P. Singh reminded the Congress that a delegation of senior SP leaders had waited at former Congress CM Kamal Nath’s doorstep till the last day of ticket distribution in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly election of 2023, “but the Congress did not give a single seat to the SP in Madhya Pradesh”, Mr. Singh said.

“The Congress should remember that it would not have been easy to win six Lok Sabha seats in U.P. in the 2024 General Election, of which two MPs were from the SP, without the support of the Samajwadi Party. When needed, the Congress takes support from the SP and regional parties, but when it comes to sharing, the doors are closed,” Mr. Singh said.