Lucknow: The alliance talks between Samajwadi Party and Congress are in a deadlock, after the ruling party released a list of 210 candidates for Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, which also included nine seats of sitting Congress MLAs.
Congress General Secretary in-charge of UP Ghulam Nabi Azad is likely to visit Lucknow today.
A key Congress meet is also expected to take place today evening.
Meanwhile, SP leader Naresh Agarwal said, "I personally feel that there should be an alliance between SP and Congress."
Commenting on the SP candidates list, Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken said, “"It is unfortunate that out of 191 seats which was declared today (Friday) by SP, nine seats belonged to sitting Congress MLAs. Obviously we were expecting those seats. Other technical details also agreed and concluded upon between Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and the Congress leadership should be honoured - is only what we are saying.”
The SP also didn`t give the Congress seats in the Lok Sabha constituencies of Amethi and Rae Bareli, represented by Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.
As the SP released the list of candidates, who included Shivpal Yadav, the estranged uncle of Akhilesh, and fielded nominees for seats represented by the Congress in the assembly, its vice president Kiramoy Nanda said the party was yet to get a "positive response" from Congress on the alliance issue.
He said SP was prepared for an alliance with Congress, for which it could spare 85 of the state's 403 seats and not more. Nanda made it clear that though his party favoured a pre-poll pact with Congress, it had to be on "our own terms".
After the SP list of 191 seats was announced in the morning, Congress called an emergency meeting here which was attended by all the senior leaders, including Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) list for Uttar Pradesh included the names of Shivpal Singh Yadav from his traditional seat Jaswantnagar in Etawah and Mohammad Azam Khan from Rampur.
