Pact between Mayawati and Akhilesh firming up ahead of 2019 polls

New Delhi, Jan 5: Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party and Mayawati, chief of the Bahujan Samaj Party held discussions in New Delhi.

The two leaders discussed a possible tie up ahead of the elections. Following the meeting, Yadav met with Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav in the presence of the BSP's Satish Mishra.

While the two leaders discussed the possible tie up and the seat sharing formula, there was no mention of the Congress. The talks focused on equally distributing the Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh between them. It may be recalled that the two parties had earlier decided that there would be no candidate fielded by either of them from Amethi and Rae Bareli.

Mayawati is learnt to have emphasised on her party contesting in more seats. She also said that the RLD be accommodated in the coalition. Both sides have however ruled out the Congress being part of the coalition.