Moradabad (Uttar Pradesh) : Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has said that his party will contest as many seats as it can in the Lok Sabha elections due in April-May this year. There are reports that the SP and the Congress will have a seat sharing understanding for the coming polls and a list will be announced soon.
During an interaction with the media here, Akhilesh Yadav dropped indications of his party getting maximum seats to contest the elections to the Lower House. When asked how many seats his party would like to contest in the LS polls, the SP chief said that their party would field candidates in as many seats as it can contest.
Akhilesh Yadav avoided a direct answer when asked why he did not attend Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra twice. However, the Samajwadi Party Chief said that there was no conflict (with Congress) and everything will be clear soon. He repeatedly said that all is well that ends well.
Sources said that the Congress agreed to give up its demand for the Moradabad seat as part of the alliance with the SP. Also, Congress national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi had played a key role in breaking the deadlock in the SP-Congress seat sharing talks. Congress will contest 17 seats in Uttar Pradesh including Amethi and Rae Bareli as part of the alliance, sources said.
According to information received from Congress Party sources, it has been agreed to give Varanasi seat to Congress. Apart from this, it is fully expected that Shravasti and Sitapur will also be allotted to Congress. There was a struggle going on between the two parties regarding this for a long time. Ultimately this matter has been resolved between the two parties.
The SP-Congress alliance came as a relief to INDIA bloc leaders. When cracks showed up in INDIA bloc after its architect Nitish Kumar quit, all eyes are on the future moves of the Congress and the SP. Now focus will be on how Congress will address other constituents of INDIA bloc. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal have already made known their stand that their parties have their own plan of action for the LS polls.
Meanwhile, MIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has said that Akhilesh Yadav has been let down by his own alliance partners and asserted that the Majlis-Ittehadul-Muslimeen is toying with the idea of entering the UP election fray.
For INDIA bloc, the SP-Congress alliance gave a boost. Ever since the formation of India Alliance, some party or the other was leaving it every month. Last month, Nitish Kumar quit India Alliance. Even in UP, there was no coordination initially between Samajwadi Party and Congress. Jayant Chaudhary's RLD also separated from the alliance and joined the NDA.
In UP, before Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra entered Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav had announced his participation in the yatra. But, even after Yatra left Lucknow, the dispute over seat sharing between the two parties had put the alliance in danger. The very next day after Nyay Yatra left Lucknow, the strategy regarding alliance has been decided between the two parties.
Congress spokesperson K Rai's statement said that a joint press conference will be held on Wednesday evening by both the parties regarding the alliance. In which National General Secretary and in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Avinash Pandey and State President Ajay Rai will be present on behalf of Congress Party.
Earlier, Akhilesh Yadav had talked about joining Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Rae Bareli and Amethi after entering Uttar Pradesh. But due to seat sharing and alliance issues, Akhilesh Yadav had refused to attend Rahul Gandhi's visit. There was also talk that Akhilesh Yadav was angry about seat sharing at one time and that he may break his alliance with Congress any time. When Nyay Yatra entered Lucknow on Tuesday, Samajwadi Party also released the third list of Lok Sabha candidates.
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