Congress and SP seal deal

Lucknow: Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi have given the pre-poll alliance in Uttar Pradesh their seal of approval. The Samajwadi Party will contest 298 of the 403 seats in the state and the Congress 105. Candidate lists that were subsequently released by the two parties reflected a spirit of give and take. The Samajwadis announced two candidates in Amethi and three in Rae Bareli, leaving for the Congress five seats in the parliamentary constituencies of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. This means the alliance partners have equally split the 10 seats in Amethi and Rae Bareli. The Congress later announced its first list of 41 candidates for the first and second phases. The list mentions Mukesh Chaudhary as the party nominee from the Deoband seat. The Samajwadis had nominated Maviya Ali, who had won from Deoband as a Congress candidate and recently joined Akhilesh's party. The Congress list suggests the Samajwadis have cancelled Ali's candidature. Also, the Samajwadis had yesterday announced Manish Chauhan as the candidate from Shamli. The Congress has replaced him with its sitting MLA Pankaj Mallick. The alliance was formally announced by Samajwadi Uttar Pradesh unit chief Naresh Uttam and his Congress counterpart Raj Babbar at a joint media conference. "The chief minister and my party boss, Akhilesh Yadav, has asked me to inform you that we would jointly contest the state polls to defeat the communal Bharatiya Janata Party and the casteist Bahujan Samaj Party", Uttam said. Babbar echoed him. "It is a historic decision taken in the interest of the people of Uttar Pradesh. The coalition government will work against the communal forces and create history," he said. "It will present before the people an agenda within a week of government formation for an effective, accountable and transparent governance and administration." Uttam said: "I appeal to my party workers to work for whosoever is fielded by the SP and the Congress as an alliance candidate." Babbar added: "The youthful leadership of Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi would rise above the politics of caste and religion and ensure that economic and social justice reaches every resident of Uttar Pradesh." Earlier in Lucknow, a Samajwadi spokesperson had announced that a media conference would be organised at the party headquarters at 5.30pm. However, sources said, Babbar preferred a change of venue and eventually a five-star hotel was chosen for the media conference. Late last night, Prashant Kishor, the Congress consultant, and Dheeraj Srivastava, an aide to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, had met Akhilesh at his official residence "for the final decision" on the seat-sharing.