The Congress has stepped up preparations for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, scheduled for early 2027, with securing a favourable seat-sharing agreement with the Samajwadi Party (SP) emerging as one of its biggest challenges. The party is looking to begin negotiations well in advance to ensure sufficient time for campaigning, and has reportedly entrusted Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra with leading the talks with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.

A source within the Congress told The Sunday Guardian that Priyanka Gandhi has been assigned the responsibility of negotiating the maximum possible number of seats for the party, as the leadership believes that discussions led by senior leaders from the state unit may not yield the desired results with the SP leadership. The decision also reflects the Congress leadership's continued confidence in Priyanka Gandhi's political role in Uttar Pradesh. She spent considerable time campaigning in the state during the 2022 Assembly elections, when the Congress managed to win only two of the 403 seats. Despite that electoral setback, the party has once again turned to her to lead negotiations for the 2027 polls.

Congress is eyeing between 120 and 140 seats, with its initial demand likely to range between 125 and 150 constituencies. The party's calculations are based largely on its performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the results of the 2017 Assembly polls. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress won six of the 17 seats it contested in Uttar Pradesh. The party also led in 38 Assembly segments and finished second in another 42, giving it a potential base across around 80 constituencies. These seats have reportedly been included in its preliminary wishlist for the Assembly elections.

According to the source, Priyanka Gandhi held a meeting earlier this week with Uttar Pradesh Congress in-charge Rajendra Pal Gautam, office-bearers and senior state leaders to discuss the constituencies the party intends to contest. During the meeting, the leadership examined a list of approximately 120-140 seats and divided the prospective constituencies into three categories based on priority. Priyanka Gandhi asked state leaders to identify around 50 constituencies that the Congress considers essential to contest. The second list will comprise seats where the party demonstrated a stronger electoral position in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, particularly those in which it led in the Assembly segments. The third category will include constituencies associated with prominent party leaders, including Amethi and Rae Bareli, traditionally regarded as Congress strongholds.

The party is also considering a strategy under which it would seek at least one Assembly seat in every parliamentary constituency or one seat in every district, in addition to its demands in Amethi and Rae Bareli. However, the Congress faces the challenge of rebuilding its organisation even in these traditional pockets. In the 2022 Assembly elections, it failed to win any of the five Assembly segments in Amethi or the five segments in Rae Bareli. The source said the Congress would communicate its position clearly to the SP during negotiations. The party is also prepared to contest some constituencies on ally symbol, if necessary, but wants a respectable number of seats to establish its political presence and campaign effectively in the state. The SP, however, appears reluctant to accommodate the Congress's demands. Akhilesh Yadav has reportedly emphasised that seat-sharing should be determined by the winnability of candidates rather than by the number of constituencies sought by individual parties. SP national spokesperson I.P. Singh told The Sunday Guardian that the Congress lacked sufficient ground-level relevance in Uttar Pradesh to justify a large share of seats.

"The Congress does not have any relevance on the ground in Uttar Pradesh. Giving it a higher number of seats would amount to wasting constituencies and helping the opposition. We will not allow that to happen," Singh said, adding that the SP would not offer the Congress more than 50-60 seats.

Singh said the SP intended to contest around 350 constituencies and was already preparing for the exercise. According to him, the party had a pool of approximately 250 candidates, while candidates for the remaining seats would be identified by mid-November. The SP believes its organisational growth since the previous Assembly elections should translate into a larger share of constituencies in 2027.