Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) : Congress Uttar Pradesh in-charge Avinash Pande has officially announced that the alliance with Samajwadi Party (SP) and other allies of the INDIA Alliance has been finalised for the Lok Sabha elections. He said that the Congress will contest 17 LS seats while the SP and other allies will contest the remaining 63 seats.
Addressing a press conference here, Avinash Pande said: "I am delighted to tell that it has been decided that in Uttar Pradesh the Congress will contest on 17 seats and the remaining 63 seats will have candidates from SP and other parties."
The 17 LS seats to be contested by the Congress in the country's most populous state of UP are: Varanasi, Amethi, Raebareli, Sitapur, Barabanki, Kanpur Nagar, Saharanpur, Amroha, Fatehpur Sikri, Maharajganj, Bansgaon, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Jhansi, Mathura, Prayagraj and Deoria.
As part of this alliance, the SP has agreed to allow Congress to contest Varanasi, Raebareli, Amethi and Ghaziabad among 13 other seats. In Madhya Pradesh, the SP is given one seat - Khajuraho - in return for its support to Congress in all remaining seats in that state.
Earlier, SP chief and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had already said that all is well and there will be alliance, indicating that an announcement will come out soon. As per the insiders of the grand old party, their general secretary Priyanka Gandhi took an active part in breaking the deadlock in the seat-sharing with the SP. She also spoke directly with Akhilesh Yadav and helped in finding a mutually agreeable solution.
After telephonic conversation between Priyanka Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, the SP has agreed to give Sitapur and Barabanki seats to Congress. Priyanka Gandhi was AICC incharge of Uttar Pradesh affairs during the 2022 Assembly elections. The Congress posted a dismal performance in these elections and, later, she was replaced by Avinash Pande as the State incharge.
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