Congress leaves 7 Lok Sabha seats for BSP-SP alliance

Lucknow, Mar 17: The Congress will not be contesting in seven Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh leaving these for Mayawati-Akhilesh Yadav alliance and Ajit Singh's RLD.

Uttar Pradesh Congress Chief Raj Babbar said, " We are leaving 7 seats vacant for SP, BSP and RLD. These include Mainpuri, Kannauj, Firozabad and whatever seats Mayawati ji & RLD's Jayant ji and Ajit Singh contest from. We will also give two seats to Apna Dal - Gonda & Pilibhit."

Also, the party has reached an agreement Jan Adhikar party (JAP) on seven seats. Out of these 7, Congress will fight on 2 and JAP on 5 seats.

"We had talked to Mahan Dal, a regional force based in western Uttar Pradesh, earlier. They had said they were fine with whatever seats we give them, all they wanted was to contest Vidhan Sabha election. For Lok Sabha elections they had said they'll contest on our symbol. We'll find out a way to work with them, " said Babbar.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have announced their seat allocation for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, even as SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav red-flagged the alliance.

SP president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati, in a signed statement announced that the SP will contest 37 seats and the BSP 38. While announcing the alliance last month, both parties had said they will contest 38 seats each. Uttar Pradesh accounts for 80 Lok Sabha seats.