The ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday ruled out any alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in the upcoming state assembly polls and said a pre-poll alliance was being finalised with the Congress party.
Party leaders here were finalising the names of candidates for the first and second phase of elections. The SP will be contesting on 300 seats while the Congress will be given 100-103 seats.
Sources confirmed that the SP was earlier not ready to give more than 75 seats to its alliance partner, however, after it shied away from tying up with Ajit Singh-led RLD, it gave the share of the seats to the Congress.
A senior SP leader told IANS that the party leadership, including SP National President and UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav were not in favour of allying with the RLD.
The party's manifesto was finalised and it was expected that the list of candidates will be declared in the next 2-3 days.
--IANS
md/ahm/dg