Seat-sharing has been finalised between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress with Akhilesh Yadav-led SP set to contest on 62 seats and the Congress on 17 seats in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha polls.
Initially, Akhilesh had offered the Congress 11 seats, which was later increased to 15 before finally settling on 17 seats as his last offer.
This is a much-needed boost for the opposition bloc, which has struggled to stay united since its formation last June. Seat-sharing disagreements have been a major challenge.
In addition to its traditional strongholds of RaeBareli and Amethi, the Congress will field candidates from Kanpur Nagar, Fatehpur Sikri, Basgaon, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Maharajganj, Amroha, Jhansi, Bulandshahar, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Sitapur, Barabanki, and Deoria. It has also been given Varanasi, which is Prime Minister Modi's constituency.
Samajwadi Party General Secretary Rajendra Chaudhary and his Congress counterpart, Avinash Pandey, jointly addressed a press conference in Lucknow to announce the alliance.
"The alliance is a message for the country. There are 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP... Akhilesh ji has repeatedly said BJP came to the centre from UP (and) because of UP it will lose power in 2024. The situation in the country is very bad... farmers and youth are on the streets. INDIA alliance's dream is to save the country from BJP," Mr Chaudhary said.
Earlier in the week, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav had indicated that he would join Gandhi's yatra only after the seat-sharing agreement was finalised.
Today, Yadav hinted that a seat-share deal with the Congress for Uttar Pradesh's 80 Lok Sabha seats is nearing completion. Speaking to reporters, Yadav stated, "All is well that ends well...there is no dispute...there will be an alliance," when asked about his absence from Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' in Amethi and Rae Bareli.
The SP and the Congress are partners in the INDIA bloc, formed by opposition parties to take on the BJP in the upcoming general elections.
