After a boost in its seat count and vote share in Uttar Pradesh during the recent Lok Sabha elections, the Congress is aiming to secure three seats in the upcoming Assembly bypolls. The party is preparing for tough negotiations with its INDIA bloc ally, the Samajwadi Party (SP), over seat-sharing.

On Sunday, the UP Congress held a meeting with district chiefs, in-charges, and key leaders from the ten Assembly seats set for bypolls. These bypolls were prompted by the resignations of sitting MLAs who had contested in the Lok Sabha elections.

The meeting, chaired by state party chief Ajay Rai, was focused on assessing the Congress’s prospects in the bypolls. It was decided that the Congress would exclude the five seats currently held by the SP—Karhal, Sisamau, Katehri, Kundarki, and Milkipur—from its negotiation demands. Instead, the Congress plans to push for “two to three seats” from the remaining five.

In the 2022 Assembly elections, the Congress did not win any of the ten seats up for bypolls. Of these, five were won by the SP, three by the BJP, and one each by the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and the NISHAD party.

The Congress is particularly interested in the Meerapur, Manjhwa, and Phulpur seats. Meerapur was won by RLD leader Chandan Chauhan in 2022, who has since vacated it after being elected as an MP. Manjhwa was secured by NISHAD party’s Vinod Kumar Bind, while Phulpur was a BJP victory. The Congress believes it has a chance at Phulpur if it can secure SP’s support.

However, the SP seems reluctant to cede these three seats, leading to anticipated tough negotiations between the allies. SP president Akhilesh Yadav recently met potential candidates for Meerapur, and there are indications that Phulpur might remain with the SP due to their strong candidate, Mujtaba Siddiqui.

The SP is reportedly prepared to offer the Ghaziabad and Khair seats to the Congress. Ghaziabad was won by BJP’s Atul Garg, with the SP coming in second. In Khair, which was won by BJP’s Anoop Pradhan, the SP had previously ceded the seat to its ally RLD.

An SP leader in Delhi suggested that the party might only offer one seat to the Congress, given the competitive nature of the seats.

Despite these challenges, the Congress is hopeful of making significant gains in the bypolls and hopes to leverage its recent electoral success to strengthen its position against the BJP-led NDA.

The schedule for the ten Assembly bypolls has yet to be announced by the Election Commission.