UP seat-sharing deal done! Akhilesh Yadav's SP to contest 63 seats, Congress 17, says leader Ravidas Mehrotra

livemint.com:

We will try to get all 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh," Ravidas Mehrotra told news agency ANI. Akhilesh Yadav confirmed on Wednesday that there will be an alliance between the SP and the Congress and that “everything will be cleared soon." On asking why he was not present twice for the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Yadav said, “All is well that ends well... Yes, there will be an alliance.

There is no conflict. Everything will be out and clear soon... All is well that ends well..." On Monday, the SP had said it offered 17 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh to the Congress.

The two political parties are partners in the INDIA bloc, formed by opposition parties to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming general elections. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra reportedly spoke with Akhilesh Yadav over phone on Wednesday to break the deadlock on Lok Sabha polls seat-sharing in Uttar Pradesh and give a final shape to an alliance at the earliest, sources told news agency PTI. Sources said the alliance had been all but sealed and the only seat on which the SP had to take a call was Shrawasti which the Congress is asking for.

The sources added that earlier the Congress was being given a "raw deal" with seats where winnability was low and the party was asking for alternative constituencies. As per PTI, the Congress has got seats such as Sitapur and Barabanki. Besides these seats, the Congress is also likely to get Kanpur, Varanasi, Saharanpur, Amroha, Fatehpur Sikri and Jhansi among others.