Big moment for INDIA: SP, Cong tie up in UP, MP for LS polls;Cong gets 17 seats in UP

Lucknow: INDIA bloc partners SP and Congress on Wednesday announced a tie-up for the Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, with the UP's main opposition party leaving 17 out of the 80 seats in the state for the ally.

In Madhya Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party will contest on a single seat, Khajuraho, and support the Congress in the remaining constituencies in the state.

Among the 17 seats on which the Congress will contest in UP included Raebareli and Amethi, once considered pocket boroughs of the party, and Varanasi which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency.

The seat-sharing announcement was made at a joint press conference here by SP state chief Naresh Uttam Patel, SP national general secretary Rajendra Chaudhary, Congress state president Ajay Rai and AICC in-charge of UP Avinash Pande.

Pande said the Congress will contest on 17 seats, while on the rest 63 seats in the state, the SP and other alliance partners will contest.

SP state chief Patel said party president Akhilesh Yadav will decide candidates for the 63 parliamentary seats in UP.

Apart from Raebareli, Amethi and Varanasi, the other seats on which the Congress will be contesting include Kanpur City. (PTI)