Priyanka Gandhi in picture, can Congress strike hard bargain with SP for UP polls?

Priyanka is seen as a tough negotiator willing to press her party's case firmly while striking a seat-sharing deal with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh YadavAs the Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) work towards an alliance for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is once again taking a hands-on role in matters. Her immediate task, sources said, is to help decide which constituencies the Congress should seek from the SP and determine how much electoral space her party manages to regain in Uttar Pradesh, where its footprint has shrunk over the years.Priyanka recently held a meeting with senior state Congress leaders to discuss constituency selection and the party’s bargaining position with SP. According to reports, around 175 of the total 403 seats in Uttar Pradesh figured in the discussions, with the Congress assessing the constituencies on the basis of its electoral performance, organisational strength and prospects of winning with the SP’s support base.According to sources, the Congress has been considering a list of 125-150 seats to put forward in negotiations with the SP. The precise number of seats it will finally seek is uncertain. The SP, meanwhile, has not publicly endorsed the Congress’s proposed seat allocation.Confirming that a list of possible seats was being prepared under different categories, Congress spokesperson Anshu Awasthi said: “Priyanka ji is very much involved in the Uttar Pradesh elections. Talks are on at the leadership level, and it is our collective decision that we together oust the BJP from governance of Uttar Pradesh. The BJP has harmed everyone—Dalits, backward classes, women. We will bring the INDIA bloc together and remove BJP,” he said. Udayveer Singh, a senior SP leader who handled alliance coordination for the party during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, said no Congress list had been received through official channels. “We are positive about the alliance and are waiting for them to hold formal discussions. As of now, that hasn’t started. The Congress has not even constituted a coordination committee. When they officially designate someone for the talks, we will speak to them. When talks begin, the SP will look at things positively,” he told INDIA TODAY. Despite expressing optimism about an alliance, sources said the SP was preparing for all 403 assembly seats in case the negotiations do not proceed as expected. Some party leaders are reportedly frustrated by ‘delays’ from the Congress.Meanwhile, the renewed involvement of Priyanka, currently a Congress general secretary without a dedicated state portfolio, has revived questions about her position in the party’s Uttar Pradesh strategy. She was the Congress’s principal organisational face in the state between 2019 and 2023, overseeing the campaign for the 2022 assembly elections. After her election to the Lok Sabha from Kerala’s Wayanad in 2024, Priyanka took on a broader national role. Her latest intervention suggests Uttar Pradesh remains a priority. There had been speculation about whether Rahul Gandhi’s team would take the lead in shaping the Congress’s poll strategy in Uttar Pradesh. Rajendra Pal Gautam, appointed the party’s Uttar Pradesh in-charge, is regarded as close to Rahul’s circle. However, with changes in the state leadership and the seat-sharing exercise gathering pace, Priyanka has emerged as an important participant in the discussions. Also, both Aradhana Misra, the newly appointed state unit chief of the Congress, and working president Imran Masood are seen as close to her, and have been involved in the process.The Congress’s experience in 2017 continues to influence its approach. That year, the SP and Congress fought the assembly elections together. The SP contested from 311 constituencies and the Congress from 114. The SP won 47 seats and the Congress just seven, while the BJP secured 312 seats and assumed power.The 2017 arrangement left the Congress dissatisfied with how the seats had been divided and how the alliance functioned on the ground. The Congress and SP went separate ways in the 2022 assembly elections. The SP contested 347 seats and won 111; the Congress fielded candidates in 399 constituencies, but managed to win only two. Priyanka was at the forefront of the Congress campaign, which included an emphasis on women’s empowerment and slogans such as ‘Ladki hoon, ladh sakti hoon’. Yet the election verdict underlined the gap between the party’s campaign pitch and its impact on voters.The Congress is now trying to avoid repeating that outcome by identifying constituencies where it believes it can be competitive with the SP’s support. Reports suggest its proposed list has been divided into categories, ranging from seats on which it is determined to stake a claim to those where it is willing to negotiate or leave the final decision to senior leaders. Party insiders have also cited constituencies where the SP has struggled to win in recent elections as potential opportunities for the Congress. There are more than 100 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh that the SP has not won since 2012. It is also important to consider that the 2024 Lok Sabha election results for Uttar Pradesh have given the Congress a stronger argument than it had in the 2022 state polls. The SP contested 62 of the 80 parliamentary seats in 2024 and won 37 while the Congress fought 17 and secured six. Together, they won 43 seats, significantly improving the Opposition’s position against the ruling BJP.That success, however, does not settle the assembly seat-sharing question. Clearly, the Congress will need to demonstrate that its claims on seats are backed by local strength rather than solely the overall INDIA bloc performance in 2024.Priyanka’s role could be important here. Many observers see her as a tougher negotiator than Rahul, suggesting that she may be willing to press her party’s case firmly while working towards an electoral agreement with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. For Priyanka, the test is twofold. She must help the Congress secure a share of seats that allows it to remain a meaningful partner while ensuring that the party does not repeat the mistake of treating a larger allocation as an end in itself. Things will also finally boil down to how much space senior ally SP is willing to relinquish. But with Priyanka in the picture, expect negotiations on each seat to be that much contested.Subscribe to India Today Magazine- Ends