The Bahujan Samaj Party will contest 38 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh while the Samajwadi Party would field candidates in 37 constituencies in the upcoming parliamentary polls. A release signed by BSP chief Mayawati and SP president Akhilesh Yadav listed the name of the constituencies that the two parties are going to contest in the Lok Sabha polls as part of their alliance for the Lok Sabha elections.
The two parties announced a tie-up for the parliamentary elections last month. The BSP and the SP had then decided to put up candidates on equal number of seats. But the release signed by the two party chiefs named one less constituency for the Samajwadi Party.
The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) is also part of the grand-alliance in Uttar Pradesh. The RLD has been given three seats to contest in the Lok Sabha elections.
At the time of announcing their election tie-up, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav had said that the alliance would not field any candidate at Amethi and Rae Bareli parliamentary constituencies, represented by Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi respectively.
The two leaders had ignored the Congress in their election strategy to counter the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh. Explaining the reason of not including Congress in the alliance Mayawati said there’s “no real vote transfer” from Congress.
The Congress responded by appointing Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Jyotiraditya Scindia as the general secretaries in-charge of the state. Priyanka Gandhi was given the responsibility to strengthen party organization in UP East while Scindia would focus on the western part of the state.
Addressing the press conference along with Akhilesh in January, Mayawati had said the SP-BSP alliance “will give sleepless nights to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah”.
Akhilesh Yadav had termed the alliance with BSP as a political revolution and said it was necessary to bring down the soaring arrogance of the BJP.