In a major win for the Opposition'Ss INDIA bloc, the logjam between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress on forging an alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections has ended, Akhilesh Yadav said on Wednesday.
The Congress will fight on 17 seats in UP while the SP will contest the remaining 63 seats.
"Congress ke sath gathbandhan hoga (alliance will be formed with the Congress)," Yadav earlier told reporters, signalling that the two parties have built a consensus on the seat-sharing issue.
SP had made final offer of 17 seats to Congress
Notably, on Monday, the Samajwadi Party's chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary, said that the Congress had been given a final offer of 17 seats in the 80 Lok Sabha seats and that Yadav would join Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra only if the proposal is accepted.
Gandhi is currently touring Uttar Pradesh as part of the Congress' campaign to garner public support ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Earlier, the SP had offered 11 seats to the Congress but the party's state unit chief, Ajay Rai, demanded a higher allocation. Rai demanded that the party should get the two dozen seats it had won in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
Also Read
In mid-January, reports had emerged that the Congress had demanded 20 seats in the state. However, the SP had found the demand "unreasonable."
Congress won one Lok Sabha seat in UP in 2019 polls
Notably, the Congress had won only one seat in UP from Raebareli in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Congress veteran Sonia Gandhi had won the constituency.
Yadav's announcement is a major boost to INDIA or Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, which aims to oust the Narendra Modi government from power in the impending general elections.
The two parties will also hold a press confierence later today in Lucknow to announce the details.
The alliance, which had managed to forge unity between 28 non-BJP parties, recently faced major setbacks after Jayant Chaudhary-led Rashtriya Lok Dal and Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) quit the bloc to join hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.