Stoop to conquer: On the Opposition’s seat-sharing ahead of U.P. polls

As Uttar Pradesh heads to the polls in early 2027, a familiar seat-sharing tussle has emerged within the Opposition. The Samajwadi Party and the Congress share an understanding forged during the Lok Sabha elections that earned them a good share of the State’s seats, but the Congress is now reportedly seeking 181 seats, nearly 45% of the 403 Assembly constituencies. It is the latest instance of the dilemma facing the Congress as it seeks revival in States where it has become a marginal force: how to strike a favourable bargain with stronger partners without weakening the coalition against the Bharatiya Janata Party. With discontent rising against the BJP, which still occupies a hegemonic position in the party system, the Opposition feels a wind behind its sails, and its major parties agree that the only way to take on the BJP is a formidable coalition with a compelling, unified message. But the Congress’s attempt to rebuild itself in the Hindi heartland and in States where it once held sway has strained that unity. In Bihar, the Mahagathbandhan failed to reap the benefits of anti-incumbency against the Janata Dal (United)-BJP alliance, partly because it could not tap the full support of the social forces behind the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress, and partly because the Congress took too long to settle seat-sharing for the campaigns to gel. In Tamil Nadu, the Congress held out for more seats from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and delayed the alliance, while infighting produced a lacklustre campaign that left it with the lowest vote share, in the seats it contested, among the alliance partners.Uttar Pradesh need not go the same way. The demand for 181 seats is overly ambitious for a party that managed a mere 2.33% of the votes in the 399 seats it contested in 2022, when the SP won 111 of the 347 seats it contested with a 32% vote share. The Congress has a point that the variables have changed since. In 2024, the SP and the Congress together won 43 of U.P.‘s 80 Lok Sabha seats with a 43.2% vote share, just short of the BJP-led alliance’s 43.7%. The Congress won only six of the 17 seats it contested, but its vote share in those six, 44.2%, was marginally ahead of the SP’s 43.4%. The party could also argue that its national campaigns on youth concerns and the state of India’s electoral democracy give it the heft to seek more. But its lack of an efficient State-wide organisation suggests that 181 is too high. The SP remains the strongest Opposition party, having assiduously built a new social coalition of backward classes, Dalits and minorities to take on the majoritarian BJP through local mobilisations. The 2024 arrangement, in which the Congress contested a fifth of the seats, is a more reasonable guide. A well-targeted 100 or so seats would make for a more coherent campaign and a better showing alongside the SP. Published - November 16, 2026 12:31 am IST