Congress and Samajwadi Party Forge Alliance in Uttar Pradesh

In Uttar Pradesh, India seems secure. Finally, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress have decided to run together in the state that produces the most MPs for Parliament.

As part of the agreement, the party will run for 17 of the 80 seats in the state, according to Avinash Pandey, the general secretary of Congress overseeing Uttar Pradesh.


"I express my gratitude to the top Congressmen and the Social Progressives for providing the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) with a tangible form in the heartland state. I want to express my gratitude to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and our leader Rahul Gandhi in particular, whose combined efforts made this coalition possible in Uttar Pradesh," Pandey said.

At the hastily convened press conference at a hotel here were Samajwadi state president Naresh Uttam, UP Congress president Ajay Rai, and SP secretary Rajendra Chaudhary.

"The Congress will run for 17 seats in the UP, while the SP will determine how to include additional supporters in the remaining 63 seats. Our leaders will talk with the several tiny parties that make up INDIA about various alliance-related matters, Pandey said.

Uttam announced the list of seats that the Congress is going to run for. These include Mathura, Sitapur, Barabanki, Deoria, Varanasi, Amroha, Jhansi, Bansgaon, Rae Bareli, Amethi, Kanpur Nagar, Fatehpur Sikri, Saharanpur, Allahabad, Maharajganj, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Mathura, and Deoria.

Only Rae Bareli is now held by the Congress out of them. Rae Bareli was won by Sonia Gandhi in 2019, however she has decided to run for the Rajya Sabha, handing the seat to a future Congress candidate.

According to Uttam, they also decided that the SP will run for the Madhya Pradesh Lok Sabha seat in Khajuraho and back Congress candidates for the state's other 28 seats.

According to Chaudhary, the SP would back the nominee nominated by the Congress and withdraw its candidacy for the Varanasi seat. In the last several days, the SP has released three lists including about forty candidates.

Akhilesh reneged at the last minute on his pledge made last week to accompany Rahul on his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra when it arrived in Rae Bareli on February 20.

"Rahul's Yatra is still going on in UP and Akhilesh may join it somewhere," Pandey said, nevertheless.

Akhilesh allegedly consented to the coalition during an hour-long phone call with Priyanka throughout the day, according to a source in the SP.

They spoke about the chairs, which caused them some disagreement. According to an unidentified SP leader, Priyanka consented to drop the Congress's claim to the constituencies of Shravasti and Moradabad, while Akhilesh promised to grant the Congress 17 seats, including Varanasi.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Press Time staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.