Lucknow: As an alliance partner of Samajwadi Party in the INDIA bloc, the Congress wants to contest on 181 seats in UP. This was formally confirmed for the first time by SP president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday. The confirmation came moments after Akhilesh said that INDIA bloc will defeat BJP in UP polls and ruled out any change in alliance’s constituents in the future and added that SP has decided how many seats SP will contest.Until now, Congress leadership has been throwing numbers in media interviews — demanding equal partner status in UP polls and suggesting that it wants to contest on half of the 403 Assembly seats. The SP leadership, however, has been clear on its stance that winnability of candidates will remain the sole criterion for fielding candidates rather than count of seats. It has insisted that the priority id to defeat the BJP.As INDIA bloc members, SP and Congress had outperformed the BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha polls by winning 43 of the 80 seats in UP and getting 43.52% of the votes. Congress had bagged six of the 17 seats it contested with a vote share of 9.46%, while SP had its best-ever winning tally of 37 seats. The BJP’s seats fell from 62 in 2019 to 33 and lowered its overall tally below the majority mark in the Lok Sabha for the first time since 2014.The Congress contested the 2022 UP polls on its own but won just two seats, down by five seats from its tally of 7 in 2017 polls. Of the 399 seats that Congress contested in 2022, it secured a vote share of 2.33% (21.51 lakh votes). Not surprisingly, of the 399 seats, Congress candidates lost their deposits on 387 seats. On 46 seats the party got 10,000 plus votes. Of these 46 seats, 10 of them have sitting SP MLAs. The SP had won 111 seats in 2022.On Saturday, Akhilesh was responding to questions at HT Leadership Summit in Delhi when he emphasised that SP enjoys “very good” relationship with the Congress. Asked that Congress was seeking to contest 100 seats in UP polls, he said: “The number of seats they have asked for is higher than what you are suggesting.” Asked whether the Congress has demanded 200 seats, Akhilesh said the count was slightly less. “Add one to 180,” the SP chief said when asked if the Congress had sought 180 seats.Talking of his experiences with the alliances that he had entered in the past and if he had explored possibilities of reviving 2019 Lok Sabha poll alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party, Akhilesh said he had had good experiences with the alliances. He said his present alliance (with the Cong) stood on the movement and principles of Baba Saheb Ambedkar that was initiated by the BSP.“The INDIA bloc alliance with the Congress that we have had in the past (2024 Lok Sabha polls), is the same alliance that we have today. I don’t see any change in that,” Akhilesh said. On the issue of delay in finalising seat sharing with the Congress, Akhilesh said Samajwadi Party and he has decided on how many seats they will contest. This time SP is going to defeat BJP. INDIA bloc together will defeat BJP,’ Akhilesh said, confirming that Congress has sought 181 seats.