In a development that is bound to cause concern for the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Samajwadi Party (SP), the major partner of the INDIA bloc, a announced pre-poll alliance with Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) on Friday.

The new alliance has dashed the expectation of the grand old party to extract more seats from Uttar Pradesh.

Advertisement

“An agreement has been reached between the SP and the RLD on the seats in the Lok Sabha elections in UP,” announced SP President Akhilesh Yadav on his social media account.

Yadav posted a picture with RLD President Jayant Chaudhary on the social site alongside his message congratulating everyone on the alliance of RLD and SP. “Let us all unite for victory!” he wrote.

Responding to the post, Jayant wrote on the social media platform, “Always ready to protect the national and constitutional values, all the workers of our alliance are expected to move forward together for the development and prosperity of their area.”

According to SP sources, the two leaders met on Friday in Lucknow. It is reported that SP has left seven Lok Sabha seats for the RLD. RLD national spokesperson Anil Dubey too has confirmed the agreement with the SP. However, the Lok Sabha seats the SP has given to RLD is yet to be disclosed.

Sources added that the SP would take up the issue of seat sharing in UP with the Congress next week in Delhi.

UP Congress leaders, on the other hand, said they were not aware of the SP-RLD pact. “Our leaders are talking to SP and already 3 rounds of talks have been completed,” said the leader.