With the Congress and the Samajwadi party locked in hard bargaining over sharing of seats in Uttar Pradesh ahead of elections, the Samajwadi chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said on Sunday that he was confident of striking a deal with the United Progressive Alliance's lead party "very soon".
Amid reports that he is likely to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi soon to thrash out the contentious seat-sharing issue, Yadav said "I have complete faith that we will arrive at a settlement with the Congress very soon."
Asked to comment on the reported Congress demand that it be given 18 seats and five more seats where it can have a
friendly fight with the SP in a total 80
in the politically crucial state, Yadav said "when there is an alliance these issues are sorted out. We have an understanding with the Congress."
But at the same time Yadav sought to suggest that though the Samajwadi and the Congress is in an alliance and have an
understanding it cannot be termed as friendship and that the two parties are only trying to enter into a seat-sharing deal.
"We don't have friendship, we have an agreement. If there had been friendship, it would have been sorted out,"
Yadav said.