SP offers 17 seats to Cong in UP

Lucknow: The Congress has been offered 17 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party said on Monday and asserted that its chief Akhilesh Yadav will join the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Raebareli only if the proposal is accepted.

“We have given a final offer of 17 Lok Sabha seats to the Congress. Akhilesh Yadav’s participation in the Nyay Yatra in Raebareli on Tuesday will depend on their acceptance,” Rajendra Chaudhary, the Samajwadi Party’s chief spokesperson, said.

He, however, refused to identify the seats offered to the Congress. The Gandhi-led yatra will pass through Amethi on Monday. It will then enter Raebareli, where the Samajwadi Party chief had earlier said he would join. A Congress statement on Sunday said party chief Mallikarjun Kharge would join the yatra -- currently in Pratapgarh -- in Amethi.

The Samajwadi Party had earlier offered 11 seats to the grand old party while the Congress’ state unit demanded a higher allocation.

Ajay Rai, the Congress’ Uttar Pradesh unit chief, had earlier said the party should get around two dozen seats it had won in the 2009 general elections.

The Samajwadi Party and the Congress are partners in the opposition INDIA bloc. The Congress secured victory only from the Raebareli seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh. At 80, the state sends the highest number of MPs to Parliament.