NEW DELHI: The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Thursday announced their seat allocation for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, even as SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav red-flagged the alliance.
SP president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati, in a signed statement announced that the SP will contest 37 seats and the BSP 38. While announcing the alliance last month, both parties had said they will contest 38 seats each. Uttar Pradesh accounts for 80 Lok Sabha seats.
Addressing party workers in Lucknow, Mulayam Singh Yadav expressed concerns over the alliance and the seat allocation. “On what basis have they divided seats? Our party was very strong. We have formed government on our own. Have been defence minister in the past as well. We are not doing politics, only placing the truth in the open," the party patriarch said.
He said that he had the power to “change" any ticket allocation which had been made by his son, party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Among the seats announced on Thursday, SP will contest in Varanasi, which is represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the state capital of Lucknow. The party will contest polls in all the seven seats from where it is currently elected to the Lok Sabha, including Azamgarh and Kannauj—represented by Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh’s wife Dimple Yadav, respectively. The BSP, which suffered a rout in the 2014 general elections, will contest from Saharanpur, Aligarh, Agra and Bhadohi, among other constituencies. The two parties have decided not to contest elections in Amethi and Rae Bareli, which are bastions of the Congress party.
PTI contributed to this story.
