Congress to fight 80 LS seats in UP

Lucknow, Jan. 13: Left out of the SP-BSP prepoll tie-up in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress on Sunday announced it would go alone on all 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the upcoming general election.

After a brainstorming session with senior party leaders, Congress general secretary in-charge of UP Ghulam Nabi Azad, however, said his party would accommodate any secular force capable of taking on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha election.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath claimed the recently forged alliance between the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party will have no impact on the state’s politics and the BJP will “effectively wipe them off”.

■ THE SP AND BSP had on Saturday announced their alliance in Uttar Pradesh, sharing 38 seats each and leaving two seats for smaller parties.

■ THEY LEFT Rae Bareli and Amethi seats for Ms Sonia Gandhi and Mr Rahul Gandhi.

Speaking at a programme here, Adityanath said the SP-BSP alliance denoted “casteist mentality” and “anarchic elements”.

“The alliance means giving power to people who are corrupt, anarchic elements and have casteist mentality. This alliance will have no impact on the politics of the state.