Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said on February 21 that the party’s alliance with the Congress party as part of INDIA ahead of Lok Sabha elections was ‘very much happening.’
Yadav’s statement comes at a time when Rahul Gandhi is travelling in his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Uttar Pradesh.
“It is happening. You will get a news in two hours. All is well that ends well,” Yadav told reporters in response to question in alliance with the Congress and seat sharing arrangement.
Akhilesh Yadav-led party had earlier offered 17 seats, but the Congress had not accepted it. Yadav has so far stayed away from the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which is moving through Uttar Pradesh. He has said his party will join the yatra once the seat-sharing arrangement for Lok Sabha polls is formalised.
“There is no conflict. Everything will be out and clear soon, ” Yadav told reporters in UP’s Moradabad.
Sources said that Akhilesh Yadav’s concerns over seat-sharing were dispelled after Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had a conversation with him over phone on the morning of February 21.
While a formal announcement on seat-sharing is awaited, sources said the two parties have agreed that SP will concede the Varanasi seat to the Congress party. Varanasi is a high profile constituency from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been elected twice – 2014 and 2019.
Also, SP has already fielded former minister Surendra Singh Patel, an OBC leader, from the seat, a decision that will be withdrawn if there is an agreement that the Congress will field a candidate from the seat.
Sources said SP will agree on 17 seats to Congress. UP Congress Committee President Ajay Rai is the likely candidate to be fielded from Varanasi by the grand old party. Other seats that the Congress is likely to get include Rae Bareli, Amethi, Saharanpur, Barabanki, Fatehpur Sikri, Jhansi, Ghaziabad and Mathura.
After seat-sharing between the two parties in Uttar Pradesh is finalised, the leaders from the two parties will address a press conference in Lucknow on February 21.
Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 seats, to Lok Sabha is considered the most crucial state in general elections scheduled to be held in two months. The parties had been bargaining hard to arrive at a seat-sharing arrangement but in vain. In fact, SP had already announced candidates for as many as 36 seats in Uttar Pradesh.
The Congress and Samajwadi Party had contested the 2017 UP Assembly polls in alliance.
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Published: 21 Feb 2024, 02:27 PM IST