Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav to jointly address media in Ghaziabad today

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav will jointly address the media in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh on April 17. 

The Congress is contesting the Ghaziabad seat, apart from other seats in UP, in alliance with SP as part of opposition’s INDIA bloc. Ghaziabad is going to polls in second phase of voting on April 26.

The two leaders have not campaigned together for any of the ten seats of Western Uttar Pradesh going to polls in the first phase of polling on April 19.

AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi will also be holding a roadshow in western Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur on Wednesday. Saharanpur is the only seat in western Uttar Pradesh where its candidate Imran Masood is in fray in the first phase of polling on April 19. 

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The coming together of the two prominent opposition leaders is expected to impact elections across Uttar Pradesh, especially the western Uttar Pradesh where 10 seats will go to polls in the first phase of polling.

Akhilesh Yadav had taken part in Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in UP in February this year. Rahul and Akhilesh are expected to address a joint rally in Amroha on April 20. Amroha, represented by former BSP and now Congress leader Danish Ali, goes to polls in the second phase on April 26. 

The INDIA bloc has fielded Dolly Sharma of the Congress as its candidate from Ghaziabad seat while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded local MLA Atul Garg as its candidate. The seat is currently represented by Union Minister General VK Singh (retd) who won the seat twice in 2014 and 2019. The seat was won by Union Minister Rajnath Singh in 2009. The Congress won the seat in 2004.

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The Congress is contesting 17 seats while the SP and other parties of the alliance will field its candidates in 63 of the 80 parliamentary seats in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh as per the seat-sharing deal. The BJP won 62 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats from UP in 2019 and 71 in 2014. 

The two parties had contested the 2017 assembly elections in UP together. The BJP won the election.