Akhilesh-Mayawati likely to announce alliance on Sat

The much talked about grand alliance between Samajwadi Party (SP) and BSP in Uttar Pradesh in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls was likely to be announced on Saturday.
 
SP president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati would be holding a joint presser here on Saturday in which the two leaders were likely to announce the alliance.
 
SP national secretary Rajendra Chaudhary and BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra on Friday said in a joint release that Akhilesh and Mayawati to address the joint press conference on Saturday.
 
Though the release did not elaborate, according to the sources in the two parties, there could be a formal announcement of the grand alliance in UP by the two leaders. Congress is likely to be kept out of the alliance.
 
Sources said that the seat-sharing formula between the partners was yet to be finalised and that it would be declared at a later date.
 
Sources said that the alliance was scheduled to be announced on Mayawati's birthday on January 15 but it was advanced in view of the BJP-led union government's sudden decision to give ten per cent reservation to the economically weaker sections of the upper caste in an apparent bid to counter the alliance in UP.
 
Akhilesh had met Mayawati in the national capital a few days back and discussed the grand alliance in the state to counter the saffron party. A broad seat sharing formula was also worked out between the two parties according to which SP and BSP were to contest 37 seats each leaving four for Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and two seats-Raebareli and Amethi-for the Congress.
 
The newfound bonhomie between the two arch-rivals was expected to give a tough challenge to the BJP, which lost three Lok Sabha by-polls in the state which the SP and BSP contested in the alliance.
 
BJP had swept the 2014 LS polls winning 73 of the 80 seats in alliance with Apna Dal. SP had won five seats while the Congress had managed to win two seats of Amethi and Raebareli. BSP had drawn a blank in the 2014 polls.