Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party has released its third list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, revealing contenders for five crucial seats, including Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The other four seats are Kairana, Badayun, Bareilly, and Hamirpur.
This move by the Samajwadi Party follows an unresolved tussle with the Congress over seat-sharing arrangements.
Despite the SP's final offer of 17 seats to the Congress, an increase from the initial 11, the Congress is yet to respond. This development comes after Jayant Chaudhary's Rashtriya Lok Dal decided to join the NDA, further complicating the negotiations.
The Samajwadi Party's decision to independently announce candidates underscores the ongoing discord between the two parties. Earlier, the SP had frozen its decision to join Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, currently traversing Uttar Pradesh.
With Uttar Pradesh being a critical state sending the maximum number of members to the Lok Sabha, a rift between the Samajwadi Party and Congress could have significant implications for national politics. The Congress, having contested a significant number of seats in the state during the 2019 elections, secured only one victory in Sonia Gandhi's Raebareli constituency.
Despite the stakes, the Samajwadi Party remains skeptical about the Congress's electoral performance, suggesting that a solo contest might yield better results. In Bengal and Maharashtra, similar seat-sharing discussions are ongoing, further adding to the complexities of coalition politics in the lead-up to the Lok Sabha elections.