With the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections still months away, the Congress is pushing for an early start to seat-sharing talks with ally Samajwadi Party (SP), arguing that the alliance should be built around “winnable” seats rather than the number of constituencies each party contests. Both parties are conducting separate surveys of all 403 Assembly constituencies to assess their electoral prospects. Congress leaders say the exercise is intended to identify seats where the party’s organisational presence, combined with the SP’s support base and vote share, could make the alliance competitive. The push for early negotiations is rooted in the Congress’s assessment of the 2017 Assembly election, when the two parties entered into an alliance but failed to translate the understanding into effective constituency-level coordination. “Because of late negotiations and lack of adequate coordination at the constituency level, the alliance could not be reflected on the ground (in the previous Assembly polls),” said a Congress leader who attended a recent meeting of the party’s Uttar Pradesh MPs with Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on the sidelines of the ongoing Parliament session. The meeting came, sources said, after SP chief Akhilesh Yadav met Gandhi and Priyanka in Delhi. At the meeting, Congress MPs were asked for their views on the way forward. According to leaders, the broad view was that negotiations should begin early and that seat-sharing should be based not on a numerical formula but on which constituencies offer the alliance the best chance of victory. “We are clear about one thing. We want our CM in place but that is up to the SP. We want to increase our presence in the state. For that, it is important to contest ‘quality’ seats,” a party leader said. The approach reflects the Congress’s immediate objective in Uttar Pradesh: rebuilding its Assembly presence and organisational base rather than maximising the number of seats it contests. The Congress currently has a limited presence in the Assembly and leaders argue that a constituency should not become the party’s preserve simply because it has contested it repeatedly. “If a party has been losing a seat three times, giving that seat to it does not add to the alliance. If the other party’s candidate can bring its vote plus the alliance partner’s vote together, then that becomes a stronger proposition,” a Congress MP said. The surveys being conducted by the two parties are expected to examine previous electoral performance, caste combinations, organisational strength, candidate potential and the extent to which the votes of the two parties can be transferred to each other. “In an earlier meeting, it was decided that we should prepare for all 403 seats and strengthen the organisation. But as the elections approach, we need to identify the seats where caste combinations and the support of the SP can turn them into winnable seats for the Congress,” another Congress MP said. Congress leaders also see early seat selection as a way of preventing a division of Opposition votes and avoiding contests between alliance partners that could benefit the BJP-led NDA. The SP, however, is seemingly treading cautiously. A senior party leader told The Indian Express that the SP could not comment on the Congress’s “internal affairs” and that decisions regarding alliances are taken by top leaders. “We have a bigger stake than the Congress in the 2027 Assembly polls. The seat-sharing would be on the basis of the winability of the candidates,” the leader added. Lessons from 2017 The emphasis on an early agreement is informed by the Congress’s assessment of what went wrong in 2017. The SP and Congress contested that election together, with the SP fielding candidates in 311 seats and the Congress in 114. The alliance won only 54 seats — 47 for the SP and seven for the Congress — while the BJP swept the election with 312 seats in the 403-member Assembly. “An alliance does not get settled at the last moment. We have to decide early if we are going together and it is crucial considering the past experiences,” a senior Congress MP said. The over 20 “friendly fights” also did not help the Congress-SP alliance. The 2024 Lok Sabha election, however, has provided the two parties with a more successful template. The SP and Congress reached a seat-sharing agreement ahead of the election, with the SP contesting 62 seats and the Congress 17 of the state’s 80 seats. The SP won 37 seats and the Congress six, taking their combined tally to 43. The BJP, which had won 62 seats in 2019, was reduced to 33 in 2024. For the Congress, the result showed that the party could improve its performance in Uttar Pradesh by contesting a smaller number of carefully chosen seats as part of a broader alliance. Replicate 2024 Congress leaders now want to replicate the 2024 formula in the Assembly elections, but with the seat-selection exercise beginning much earlier. That could mean accepting fewer seats than it might otherwise seek, provided the constituencies offer a realistic path to victory. The party plans to continue preparing across all 403 constituencies. The objective, leaders say, is not to prejudge the eventual seat-sharing arrangement but to build an organisational presence across the state before identifying the seats it should seek from the SP. “The SP is conducting its own survey, so is Congress, to come to a common ground. The final call will be taken by the party leadership,” another Congress MP said. The formula, however, could prove politically difficult, particularly in constituencies where local leaders have built long standing claims.