Suspense over Cong-SP alliance, Cong holds CEC meeting

The suspense over an alliance between the Congress and Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh continued with Congress hardening its stand by holding a meeting of its Central Election Committee (CEC) and finalising candidates for 140 seats in the first two phases.
Leaving scope for an alliance, the party, however, did not declare the seats for the first two phases of elections in the state with leaders saying that talks with SP are continuing.
Congress general secretary and in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Ghulam Nabi Azad said the CEC finalised its candidates for 140 seats for the first and second phase of polls.

"We have cleared seats for first and second phase. We had a meeting of CEC for first and second phase," he told reporters after the meeting.
Asked if the alliance with SP was on or over, he said, "Let us see, You will know by tomorrow morning when the announcement is made."
UP Congress chief Raj Babbar claimed that the party will fight the first two phases of elections in Uttar Pradesh with full strength.

Keeping the suspense over the proposed alliance with the SP, Babbar said, "There are no road blocks in the talks."
Sources say that both Congress and Samajwadi Party have hardened their positions on seat-sharing in the proposed alliance while the deadlock remains.

Sources said that while Samajwadi Party does not want to give more than 100 seats, the Congress which initially put forth the demand of 150 seats under the alliance has scaled down considerably but is not ready to accept the figure SP is adamant on.
Party leaders from Congress and Samajwadi Party feel that it is the compulsion of both the party to ally with each other to keep the BJP out of power in the state.
Congress is learnt to have taken some hard positions on the alliance by demanding seats in Amethi and Rae Barely segments represented by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress is also keen to keep the Ajit Singh-led RLD with it in the alliance, which the Samajwadi Party is not keen on, the sources say, adding that if the alliance happens the Congress will give seats from its quota to RLD.