SP to contest on 37 seats, BSP on 38 in Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow, Feb 21: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav have decided that Samajwadi Party will contest on 37 seats while Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will fight on 38 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2019. The list had 75 of the state's 80 seats.

The two parties have however decided not field candidates from Amethi and Rae Bareli as promised by Mayawati. The remaining three are expected to go to Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal.

The 37 seats in the SP quota include Kairana, Moradabad, Sambhal, Rampur, Mainpuri, Firozabad, Badaun, Bareilly, Lucknow, Etawah, Kanpur, Kannauj, Jhansi, Banda, Allahabad, Kaushambi, Phulpur, Faizabad, Gonda, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Varanasi and Mirzapur.

The BSP will contest from Saharanpur, Bijnor, Nagina, Aligarh, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Dhaurahara, Sitapur, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Kaiserganj, Basti, Salempur, Jaunpur, Bhadohi and Deoria, among other constituencies.

The alliance could be problematic for the BJP which had won 73 out of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh in 2014. The setback for the BJP was seen when this alliance came together to fight the by-elections in Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana last year.