In snub to Cong, Akhilesh says SP to contest on 65 seats in Uttar Pradesh in LS polls

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav has indicated that his party will contest 65 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh next year, leaving the rest for its alliance partners, who also include the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Apna Dal (Krishna Patel).

The development comes as an apparent snub to Congress, which was demanding around 20 seats from SP. Both the parties are members of the I.N.D.I.A (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) bloc.

According to the SP sources here, Akhilesh revealed the number of seats to be contested by his party in the next year's LS polls at a meeting of the state executive committee of the party on Wednesday evening.

''SP is part of the I.N.D.I.A alliance...we are the biggest party in the alliance in UP...we will contest 65 seats and leave the rest for our alliance partners,'' Akhilesh is said to have told party leaders at the meeting.

Sources said that the SP leaders were also directed to prepare to contest on all the 80 LS seats in UP, in case no understanding was reached with the alliance partners on seat sharing.

UP Congress president Ajay Rai, while reacting to the report, said that he would discuss the matter with the central leaders of the party. Rai had earlier said that his party was ready to contest all the 80 seats in the state.

Sources said that Akhilesh's insistence on contesting on 65 seats could rock the alliance in UP as the RLD and Apna Dal (K) had also demanded around a dozen seats from the SP. RLD has staked its claim on around 10 seats in the western UP region's Jat belt.

Akhilesh's remarks have come amid the war of words between Congress and the SP over seats sharing formula in UP. Congress has been insisting on contesting around 20 seats in the state but the SP wants to spare only 7-8 seats.

Akhilesh had, a few days ago, accused the Congress of "cheating" his party by refusing to have an electoral understanding with the SP in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls and also claimed that the Congress leaders had a "tacit understanding" with the BJP.