Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Monday said that his party will participate in the Congress’ Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra only when the seat-sharing plan between the two parties for the Lok Sabha elections is finalised, The Hindu reported.
“Right now, talks are going on,” the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister told reporters. “Many rounds of talks have happened and lists of candidates have been exchanged. The moment seat distribution is finalised, the Samajwadi Party will join their [Congress’s] Nyay Yatra.”
The Samajwadi Party and the Congress are constituents of the INDIA bloc, an Opposition alliance that plans to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in the general elections.
The two parties have negotiated seat-sharing in Uttar Pradesh for months. Samajwadi Party has offered 17 of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats for the Congress to contest from, the former’s chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary told The Hindu. “Discussions are going on and we are waiting for their decision,” he added.
Earlier, the Samajwadi Party had offered 11 seats, but the Congress had sought 21 seats.
On February 7, the Samajwadi Party had said that its chief Akhilesh Yadav would join the Rahul Gandhi-led yatra in either Amethi or Rae Bareli. The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra is the Congress’ second large-scale outreach programme in which Gandhi is slated to travel 6,200 kms across 15 states.
Yadav’s condition for participating in the yatra came a day after Congress leader Avinash Pandey, who is the party’s Uttar Pradesh in-charge, reached out to Samajwadi Party’s rival, the Bahujan Samaj Party, with an offer to join the INDIA bloc, saying that the doors of the Opposition alliance are open.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati declined the offer and, in a social media post, reiterated her party’s position that it would not join any alliance for the Lok Sabha polls.
Samajwadi Party has so far named candidates for 27 of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats.
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