BJP to leave around 54 seats to Apna Dal and JD(U)

New Delhi, Mar 17 (UNI) The BJP today decided to leave 52 to 54 seats for its electoral allies Apna Dal and Janata Dal (United) in the coming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh besides roping them in for the joint political campaign to be launched simultaneously in 13 places on March 25.

Top BJP and JD(U) sources said that the BJP and its allies have also identified the constituencies and the candidates to be contested. The BJP which has already announced 327 candidates will announce the names of the rest of the constituencies in a day or two.

Apna Dal which joined the BJP led alliance was likely to get around 37 seats while the JD(U) will get 16-17 constituencies, the sources said.

With this development Apna Dal Chief Sone Lal Patel will be taking part in the campaign with former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and BJP's Chief Ministerial nominee Kalyan Singh at Lucknow. JD(U) Chief Sharad Yadav will address the rally along with BJP Chief Rajnath Singh at Jhansi, BJP Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi confirmed to UNI.

He said ''BJP's blitzkreig on the opening day will have an electrifying effect the poll scenario with the BJP and allies resorting to campaign cluster bombing to capture the democratic mandate.'' The rallies will be addressed by former BJP President Murli Manohar Joshi at Meerut along with J D (U) General Secretary K C Tyagi, Mr Naidu at Varanasi, Mr Ananth Kumar and Apna Dal General Secretary Pradeep Srivastav at Allahabad, Mr Naqvi at Ghaziabad, Mr Arun Jaitley at Bareli, Mr Gopinath Munde at Gorakhpur, Mr Vinay Katiyar at Muradabad, Mr Sahib Singh Verma at Sahranpur and Mr Kalraj Mishra at Aligarh.

UNI