UP Election 2022: NCP in talks with Samajwadi Party over seat-sharing formula, says Nawab Malik

Nawab Malik, the Nationalist Congress Party leader, claimed on Saturday that his party is in negotiations with the Samajwadi Party (SP) about the seat-sharing formula for the 2018 elections in Uttar Pradesh and that one seat has already been selected for the NCP. He further said that the current situation in Uttar Pradesh is similar to that of 1993, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was denied power in the state.

Malik, the NCP's main spokesperson and a Maharashtra minister, told reporters here: "The NCP and the Samajwadi Party have agreed on one seat for which we (the NCP) would run. Other seats are being discussed. The current situation in Uttar Pradesh is comparable to that of 1993 when the BJP was deposed."

In the 1993 Uttar Pradesh elections, SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav teamed together with then-BSP head Kanshi Ram to jolt the BJP. Even though the BJP had emerged as the single largest party at the time, the SP-BSP coalition established the government with the help of other parties. Malik went on to say, "The people of Uttar Pradesh are rejecting the BJP's identity politics, which promotes the domination of one community over another. As a result, groups like as Dalits, OBCs, labourers, and farmers are abandoning the BJP for good."

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Concerning the impending assembly elections in other states, he stated that the NCP had forged an alliance with the Congress in Manipur, but seat-sharing discussions in Goa have stalled. "Like a result, the NCP is considering running alone in the Goa polls, as it did last time," he added. Sharad Pawar, the president of the NCP, said earlier this week that his party would run in the UP polls as part of the SP-led coalition.

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• NCP
• Samajwadi Party
• UP Election 2022
• Nawab Malik
• BJP