LS polls: Congress-SP alliance finalises seat sharing in UP, MP

The Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) on Wednesday (February 21) finalised the Lok Sabha 2024 elections seat sharing in two states – Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

As per the seat-sharing formula, the Congress will contest 17 seats out of 80 in Uttar Pradesh and 28 seats in Madhya Pradesh.

63 seats for SP in UP

The SP will field candidates in 63 seats in Uttar Pradesh and will contest on Khajuraho seat in Madhya Pradesh, which has 29 Lok Sabha seats, and support the Congress on the rest of the seats.

Among the 17 seats on which the Congress will contest in UP included Raebareli and Amethi, once considered pocket boroughs of the party, and Varanasi which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency.

The seat-sharing announcement was made at a joint press conference here by SP state chief Naresh Uttam Patel, SP national general secretary Rajendra Chaudhary, Congress state president Ajay Rai and AICC in-charge of UP Avinash Pande.

Pande said the Congress will contest on 17 seats, while on the rest of the 63 seats in the state, the SP and other alliance partners will contest.

Akhilesh to decide candidates

SP state president Patel said, "The Congress will contest on 17 seats in UP and on the rest of the 63 seats, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav will decide candidates." Apart from Raebareli, Amethi and Varanasi, the other seats on which the Congress will be contesting included Kanpur City, Fatehpur Sekri, Basgaon, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Maharajganj, Amroha, Jhansi, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Sitapur, Barabanki and Deoria, Patel said.

Sonia Gandhi is presently the MP of Raebareli while Rahul Gandhi lost his Amethi seat to BJP leader Smriti Irani in 2019 polls.

He said senior leaders of both parties will chalk out future programmes of the alliance.

(With agency inputs)