Congress-SP alliance in UP: Priyanka Gandhi's call to Akhilesh proves to be 'clincher'

New Delhi, Feb 21 (PTI) Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra spoke with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav over phone on Wednesday to break the deadlock on Lok Sabha polls seat-sharing in Uttar Pradesh and give a final shape to an alliance at the earliest, sources said.

They said the alliance had been all but sealed and the only seat on which the SP has to take a call is Shrawasti which the Congress is asking for.

The Congress is likely to fight between 16-18 seats in Uttar Pradesh in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The sources said earlier the Congress was being given a "raw deal" with seats where winnability was low and the party was asking for alternative constituencies.

According to an agreement reached after the telephonic conversation between Priyanka Gandhi and Yadav, the Congress has now got seats such as Sitapur and Barabanki.

Besides these seats, the Congress is also likely to get Kanpur, Varanasi, Saharanpur, Amroha, Fatehpur Sikri and Jhansi among others.

The Congress is now getting a "fair deal" in the alliance, a source said.

In the Moradabad division, the Congress was asking for two seats but has agreed on Amroha alone, the sources said.

Yadav on Wednesday said an alliance with the Congress will happen in Uttar Pradesh.

His party had earlier said he would join Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra only if its seat-sharing proposal for the polls is accepted. Yadav did not join the yatra in Raebareli on Tuesday.

There is a strong buzz that Yadav could join the yatra in Agra after the seat sharing deal is announced.

On Monday, the SP had said it offered 17 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh to the Congress.

The SP and the Congress are partners in the INDIA bloc, formed by opposition parties to take on the BJP in the upcoming general elections. PTI