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Congress-Samajwadi Party seat-sharing talks tomorrow

Special Correspondent

“It will be a pragmatic and realistic alliance”

NEW DELHI: The Congress’ decision to have an electoral alliance with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh will take shape when their leaders hold the first round of talks on seat-sharing on Sunday.

“It will be a pragmatic and realistic alliance and we are going (to the talks) with an open mind and not with any pre-conceived idea,” Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh told newsmen here. Mr. Singh said he, along with Amethi MP and general secretary Rahul Gandhi and Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna, would hold discussions with the SP team of Ramgopal Yadav and Amar Singh.

The Congress leader said the party identified seats on its assessment of where it had winnable candidates. Asked what would be the number including those in the current Lok Sabha, Mr. Singh said the assessment would be based on the changed character of constituencies, following delimitation. Asked about his earlier statement that the party was prepared to contest all 80 seats in the State, Mr. Singh said while it was so, the Congress president took a political decision to have an alliance with the SP for the next Lok Sabha polls.

Mr. Singh said the Congress envisaged agreement on 85-90 per cent of the seats and did not rule out “friendly” contests.

On the possibility of an understanding with Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal, Mr. Singh said the RLD chief should get in touch with the Congress president if he was interested. On the possibility of the RLD going with the Bharatiya Janata Party, he said if the party was unable to get along with the Bahujan Samaj Party because of the social character of its constituency, “how can it be with the BJP?”

Mr. Singh said the SP and the Congress could conduct a joint campaign but ruled out a joint manifesto.

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