Akhilesh Yadav skips Rahul Gandhi's Nyay Yatra in Amethi, says 'will only join after seat-sharing is finalised'

Lucknow: Hardening his stand over his party's electoral alliance with the Congress in Uttar Pradesh in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday said that he would join the ongoing 'Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra' led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi "only after the seat-sharing deal with the grand old party us finalised".

Akhilesh, who was scheduled to join Rahul for the Nyay Yatra in Amethi on Monday, chose to skip the same. According to the SP sources here, Congress has been offered 17 seats in the state.

The SP has not revealed the seats which were offered to Congress but sources said that they included many seats which the grand old party had earlier demanded from the SP.

''Talks on seat sharing are going on with Congress... we have given them a list... they have also given a list to us... the SP will join the Yatra once the deal is finalised,'' Akhilesh told reporters here.

Sources said that Congress had demanded around two dozen seats from the SP.

Meanwhile the SP on Monday released its second list of 11 candidates from the state for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The party has fielded Harendra Malik from Muzaffarnagar seat while Rajesh Kashyap and Usha Verma were fielded from Shahajahanpur and Hardoi LS seats respectively.

Afzal Ansari, the brother of the jailed mafia don turned politician Mukhtar Ansari, was fielded from Ghazipur. 

The party had earlier released a list of 16 candidates.