Samajwadi Party Will Join Nyay Yatra After Congress Finalises Seat Sharing: Akhilesh Yadav While Rahul Gandhi Is In UP

Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav said on Monday (19 February) that he will join Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra after the INDI Alliance finalises seat-sharing for Uttar Pradesh.

"Right now talks are going on, many rounds of talks have happened. We have exchanged many lists (of candidates). The moment, seat distribution is done, Samajwadi Party will join their Nyay Yatra," Yadav told reporters.

This comes after an earlier report that SP offered 15 Lok Sabha seats to the Congress in Uttar Pradesh under the seat-sharing arrangement under INDI Alliance and accepting this offer was to condition for Yadav to join the Yatra.

Yadav's remarks came after senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that he is expecting the SP president to join the Yatra tomorrow (20 February). This is the latest example of SP flexing its muscles in alliance with Congress.

The SP announced earlier that it is starting seat-sharing with Congress on 11 seats, and then went on to announce candidates for 16 seats unilaterally, many of which Congress was expecting for itself.

Rahul Gandhi is currently in Amethi, where he lost in the 2019 elections against BJP's Smriti Irani, resulting in a lone Congress MP from UP, which was his mother Sonia Gandhi from Raebareli.

However, she is not contesting Lok Sabha elections this year. Speculations are rife that her daughter and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may contest her maiden election from the seat.