Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has offered 17 seats to Congress to contest in Uttar Pradesh in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, as part of the I.N.D.I.A bloc seat-sharing formula. Samajwadi Party wrote a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge informing him about the offer from the party's side, however, Congress is yet to reply on the offer.
Earlier, the Samajwadi Party had offered 11 seats to Congress in Uttar Pradesh, out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats.
"We have given a final offer of 17 Lok Sabha seats to the Congress. Akhilesh Yadav's participation in the Nyay Yatra in Raebareli on Tuesday will depend on their acceptance," Rajendra Chaudhary, the Samajwadi Party's chief spokesperson, told PTI.
He, however, refused to identify the seats offered to the Congress.
The Gandhi-led yatra entered Amethi on Monday. It will then enter Raebareli, where the Samajwadi Party chief had earlier said he would join.
The Samajwadi Party had earlier offered 11 seats to the grand old party while the Congress' state unit demanded a higher allocation.
Ajay Rai, the Congress' Uttar Pradesh unit chief, had earlier said the party should get around two dozen seats it had won in the 2009 general elections.
The Samajwadi Party and the Congress are partners in the opposition INDIA bloc.
