Samajwadi Party will announce all of its candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in the month of February itself, said a party leader. The party Thursday finalised its seat sharing agreement with Mayawati led Bahujan Samajwadi Party to face NDA that had won 73 seats in the state in 2014.
“The list of all the candidates will be out in next week or ten days,” a senior Samajwadi party leader told Financial Express Online.
Under the revised formula agree today, while Samajwadi Party will field its candidates in 37 seats, BSP will field candidates in 38 seats, leaving a total of 5 seats for other allies. It’s a minor change from the formula agreed in the last month when the both the parties have first time formally announced their pre-poll alliance. Under the earlier formula, both SP and BSP were to contest even number of seats, 38 each.
It is widely believed that under the revised formula, both BSP and SP will not field candidates in Amethi and Rai Bareilli seats, considered bastions of Gandhi family. Both the parties are also not likely to field candidates in three seats against Jat leader Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal.
Ajit Singh’s son Jayant Chaudhary has last month met Samajwadi Party chief and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow to have pre-poll tie up in the Western Uttar Pradesh, where Jat votes hold sway in several seats.
However, the seat sharing between Samajwadi Party and BSP could not be finalised due to the formal entry of another Gandhi family scion Priyanka Gandhi into the politics as she was made a general secretary and in charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh.
It was reported that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra might talk to Akhilesh Yadav for the formal entry of her party Congress into the SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh to jointly take on the BJP’s might, however, the revised seat sharing plan announced by SP-BSP has put and end to these speculations.