The posters, bearing the slogan “200 seat haq hai hamara” (200 seats are our right), surfaced on Sunday outside the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee office and elsewhere in the state. They also declared that Uttar Pradesh trusted Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
Photographs of Rahul Gandhi, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra featured prominently alongside state Congress leaders.
However, the Congress denied responsibility for the campaign, while Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav described the posters as fake and alleged that the BJP was attempting to create divisions within the opposition INDIA bloc.
The controversy emerged as Congress and the Samajwadi Party began discussing their respective shares of the 403 constituencies ahead of next year’s Assembly elections.
Congress state in-charge Rajendra Pal Gautam confirmed that his party had submitted a preliminary list covering between 175 and 200 constituencies to its alliance partner.
Gautam said the final allocation would be determined through discussions between the senior leadership of both parties. He maintained that Congress workers would accept whatever arrangement emerged from an amicable agreement.
The distinction between the party’s preliminary constituency list and the poster campaign became central to the dispute. Although Congress leaders have publicly sought a substantial allocation, they have not endorsed the posters as an authorised party initiative.
Yadav accused the BJP of orchestrating the campaign to undermine opposition cooperation. He questioned how unidentified individuals could install political hoardings without paying the prescribed municipal charges.
The Samajwadi Party leader demanded an investigation into the installations and action against municipal officials responsible for enforcing advertising regulations.
Gautam supported Yadav’s allegations, maintaining that attempts to generate confusion over the alliance would not undermine cooperation between the two parties.
Neither leader presented publicly verified evidence establishing who commissioned or financed the posters. The allegations against the BJP therefore remain unsubstantiated.
The hoardings were also spotted in Rae Bareli, Amethi and Sultanpur, extending the controversy beyond Lucknow. Their appearance coincided with negotiations over the relative electoral strength of the two opposition partners.
Samajwadi Party leader Dharmendra Singh said constituency allocations could not be decided through posters or public demands.
He emphasised that the leadership and the designated negotiating committee would determine which party contested individual constituencies, with electoral viability serving as the principal consideration.
The Samajwadi Party has maintained that candidates’ prospects of winning should take precedence over numerical demands during alliance negotiations.
The competing positions reflect differences in the parties’ electoral standing. Congress won only two seats when it contested the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections independently, while the Samajwadi Party emerged as the principal opposition force.
Their cooperation during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections produced substantially stronger results. The Samajwadi Party secured 37 parliamentary constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, while Congress won six.
That performance strengthened the opposition alliance against the BJP and provided Congress leaders with grounds to seek a larger organisational and electoral role in the state.
Nevertheless, the parliamentary results do not automatically translate into an equivalent distribution of Assembly constituencies. The parties must assess local organisational networks, candidate strength and constituency-level voting patterns before reaching an agreement.
Congress leaders have indicated that they want a respectable share of seats rather than an allocation based solely on their previous Assembly performance.
The Samajwadi Party, meanwhile, remains the larger partner in the state and has stressed the importance of protecting the alliance’s electoral competitiveness.
No final seat-sharing formula has been announced, and the leadership of both parties has indicated that negotiations will determine the eventual distribution.
The posters also displayed photographs of Uttar Pradesh Congress president Aradhana Misra, working president Imran Masood and Gautam, placing the state leadership alongside the Gandhi family.
The slogan accompanying the demand for 200 seats read “UP ko hai Rahul Gandhi par bharosa”, expressing confidence in Rahul Gandhi’s leadership.
The campaign’s authorship remains unresolved, with Congress officials distancing themselves from the displays despite their use of party leaders’ photographs and electoral messaging.
Yadav has additionally sought accountability from municipal authorities over the installation of the hoardings, including whether the necessary advertising fees were collected and permissions obtained.
