SP's Alliance With Congress To Continue, Says Akhilesh After Announcing Candidates For UP Bypolls

SP has named Tej Pratap Yadav from Karhal, Naseem Solanki from Sisamau, Mustafa Siddiqui from Phulpur, Ajit Prasad from Milkipur, Shobhawati Verma from Katehari and Jyoti Bind from Majhwan.

A day after the Samajwadi Party announced its candidates for six of the 10 seats where assembly bypolls are due this year, party chief Akhilesh Yadav said his party's alliance with Congress will continue. The Congress has been demanding five seats in the bypolls.

Yadav talked to reporters during his visit to Uttar Pradesh's Etawah, where he reached this morning to pay tributes to his father and Samajwadi Party (SP) founder Mulayam Singh Yadav on his death anniversary.

"I only want to say that INDIA bloc will be there. SP and Congress alliance will remain intact," he said. However, Akhilesh did not elaborate and said this was not the time to discuss politics. In an apparent snub to ally Congress over its poor show in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections, the SP on Wednesday announced candidates for six assembly seats.

SP has named its candidates for the Karhal (Mainpuri), Sisamau (Kanpur city), Milkipur (Ayodhya), Katehari (Ambedkar Nagar), Phulpur (Prayagraj) and Majhwan (Mirzapur) constituencies. SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary had said any seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress will be decided by the party chief.

The party has named Tej Pratap Yadav from Karhal, Naseem Solanki from Sisamau, Mustafa Siddiqui from Phulpur, Ajit Prasad from Milkipur, Shobhawati Verma from Katehari and Jyoti Bind from Majhwan.

Congress's Demands Ahead Of Bypolls

The Congress has been demanding the Phulpur and Majhwan seats besides Ghaziabad, Khair (Aligarh) and Meerapur (Muzaffarnagar). A by-election is also due in Kundarki (Moradabad).

Congress was expected to make a comeback in Haryana, but it got 37 of the 90 seats as the BJP won a third consecutive term by winning 48 seats. In Jammu and Kashmir, the NC-Congress alliance bagged 49 of the 90 seats but the Congress alone secured only six of the 32 seats it contested.

Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai had told PTI, "We have submitted a proposal about contesting five of the 10 seats to the high command. These were the seats won by BJP earlier." 

Nine of these seats fell vacant after their respective MLAs were elected as MPs in the Lok Sabha polls, while the bypoll in Sisamau is being held due to the disqualification of SP MLA Irfan Solanki, who was convicted in a criminal case.