Maya, Akhilesh to meet to initiate seat sharing talks

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav would be meeting next week to initiate talks on sharing of seats in Uttar Pradesh in the next Lok Sabha polls in 2019.

SP sources here said that Akhilesh was likely to meet Mayawati in the next few days to formulate the electoral strategy and identify the seats to be contested by the two parties, which have declared that they will contest the next LS polls in alliance to counter the BJP.

''Some broader issues concerning the seat sharing and campaigning as well as inclusion of other like minded parties in the alliance will be discussed in the meeting,'' said a senior SP leader while speaking to DH here on Sunday.

The leader said that it has already been agreed that SP would be contesting from all the seats it had won in 2014 LS elections besides those, where its nominees had finished runners up.

Sources said that both Akhilesh and Mayawati were not averse to the inclusion of Congress, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and some other smaller outfits in the alliance.

''We are ready to accommodate the smaller outfits,'' the leader added.

Besides the RLS, outfits like Peace Party, Apna Dal (Krishna Patel faction), Nishad Party have also evinced interest in joining the alliance.

Sources in both SP and BSP said that the two parties wanted to finalise the seat sharing in the next few months so that they had ample time to prepare for the polls.

BSP had extended support to the SP in the recently concluded LS by-polls at Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats. SP wrested both seats from the BJP. SP has fielded its nominee in Kairana on RLD election symbol, where LS by-poll would be held on May 28.