UDF to announce list of candidate for UP polls on Thursday

Lucknow, Mar 12 (UNI) The United Democratic Front (UDF) today said it would announce the list of its candidates for the first phase of assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday.

''So far we have identified 200 seats in all. If no alliance shapes up with any secular party, we would contest the elections on our own and the list would be announced on March 14,'' UP Haj minister Haji Yakub Qureshi said here.

He claimed that the UDF would not approach any political outfit for alliance. ''They are welcome to contact us in this regard,'' he added.

He maintained talks were on with various parties for a possible alliance but if nothing shaped up, UDF would contest the polls on its own. He claimed that UDF had also takled with the Samajwadi Party but nothing has shaped up so far.

Yakub Qureshi is a minister in the ruling Samajwadi Party and it is being believed that soon before nominations, he would resign from the SP.

Qureshi was recently repremanded by the assembly speaker for announcing a bounty of Rs 51 crore on the heads of Danish cartoonists for lampooning Prophet Mohammed.

UNI