After allocation of seats, Varanasi goes to Samajwadi Party

SP and BSP on Thursday announced the allocation of Lok Sabha seats for themselves in Uttar Pradesh, according to which they will contest 37 and 38 seats respectively. Varanasi, the Lok Sabha seat, which is currently represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has gone to the SP kitty.

According to an official statement, SP has got five reserved seats meant for Scheduled Castes. These seats are Hathras, Hardoi, Etawah, Kaushambi, Barabanki, Robertsganj, and Bahraich. The statement issued has been signed by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati.

The others seats where SP will put up its candidates in the coming Lok Sabha elections are Kairana, Moradabad, Rampur, Sambhal, Ghaziabad, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Atta, Budaun, Bareilly, Pilibhit, Kheri, Unnao, Lucknow, Kannauj, Kanpur, Jhansi, Banda, Phulpur, Allahabad, Faizabad, Gonda, Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Azamgarh, Ballia, Chandauli, Varanasi, and Mirzapur.

Last month, SP and BSP had announced that their alliance for the coming Lok Sabha polls by agreeing to contest 38 seats each. Two seats had been left for other parties, which has now gone up to three with SP sacrificing one more seat. The two parties have also agreed not to up candidates from Rai Bareli and Amethi, currently represented by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

The seats that will be fought by the BSP are Bijnor, Amroha, Nagina, Meerut, Aligarh, Aonla, Shahjahanpur, Dhaurahra, Sitapur, Misrikh, Mohanlalganj, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Farrukhabad, Akbarpur, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Fatehpur, Ambedkar Nagar, Kesarganj, Shravasti, Domariaganj, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Deoria, Bansgaon, Lalganj, Ghosi, Salempur, Jaunpur, Machhali Shahar, Ghazipur, and Bhadohi are the 38 seats that will be contested by the BSP.

In Uttar Pradesh, the highest number seats--80 Lok Sabha seats--is at stake. Congress has decided to contest all 80 seats after the party was not made a part of the SP-BSP alliance. The Congress leadership has said that they will fight the Lok Sabha polls with 'full force' in Uttar Pradesh.