Imran Masood says alliance with SP hurting Congress: 'Any future partnership must be...'

Imran Masood, Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP from Saharanpur. (File/PTI)

Having stunned the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha elections after contesting the polls in an alliance last year, the partnership between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress have soured once again. After contesting the Assembly elections in Haryana (October 2024) and Delhi (February 2025) on their own, the two parties do not appear to be on the same page on seat-sharing in the all-important state of Uttar Pradesh.

While elections in the state are still two years away, senior Congress leader and Saharanpur MP Imran Masood has reiterated his demand for a reset in ties before the 2027 UP elections.

"We will fight on our own and if there is an understanding, it will be one of respect. We won’t let them (the SP) decide what seats we contest. We will decide if an understanding can be reached. And the decision has to be made by the party leadership," Masood told The Indian Express.

Masood said that the days of SP treating Congress unfairly were over and any future understanding between the two parties would be equal and respectable.

"The 80-17 formula won’t work, which means that in the Parliamentary elections, we were given 17 seats (of UP’s total 80 Lok Sabha seats). This won’t work. The votes were cast in Rahul Gandhi’s name. There are favourable conditions in Rahul ji’s name. I have said that if there is an understanding, it will have to be respectable," he said.

Masood further said that the Congress is preparing itself to contest all 403 Assembly seats in the state, and said in case of an alliance, the party would not accept the SP's attitude of deciding the seats Congress could contest.

"If there is an understanding, it should be equal. They shouldn’t say, ‘We are leaving these seats for you’… This decision will be made by the Congress leadership. We are not asking the SP for anything," he said, adding that the SP would have no role in deciding which seats the party can contest.

The firebrand MP also took another swipe at the Samajwadi Party, suggesting that an alliance with the Akhilesh Yadav-led party was causing damage to the Congress.

"There are a lot of internal things I shouldn’t say outside. But I will repeat – they won’t decide our seats (now). They offer us seats where we will lose. Hence, we left the bypoll seats… The Congress is facing harm because of the alliance. See, the BJP eats up its allies. On the other hand, our allies eat us up," he added.

Masood also denied that the BJP could gain from any split in Muslim votes if the Congress and SP were to contest the Assembly elections separately and expressed confidence that people of the state would rally behind Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

"People understand… that if there is anyone who can fight the BJP today, it is Rahul Gandhi. There is no one else. I will say this that when there is a storm at sea, it is faced by ships and not small boats. And there is a political storm in the country right now. Hence, I say everyone should get on board the Congress. It is the only party that can never go with the BJP," Masood added.