The Rashtriya Lok Dal will contest three Lok Sabha seats as part of an alliance with the SP and the BSP, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Tuesday and asserted that the Congress was "very much" part of their "mahagatbandhan" in Uttar Pradesh.
Addressing a press conference with RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary, son of party founder Ajit Singh, Yadav said the RLD, which has political influence in western Uttar Pradesh, would contest Mathura, Baghpat and Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha seats.
After repeated questions by reporters at the press conference, the SP chief said the Congress was "very much in the alliance".
"We have left two seats (Amethi and Rae Bareli) for the party (Congress)," he said.
Amethi is represented by Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Rae Bareli by United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
Yadav said the alliance partners will jointly take on the BJP in Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh.
Chowdhury said that this alliance is a "Sangam of ideologies and parties" and added that for him, "relations are important".
BSP chief Mayawati and SP's Yadav had jointly announced their alliance in January, saying the SP and the BSP will contest 38 seats each out of the total 80 in Uttar Pradesh.
However, according to a list released later, the SP announced it will contest 37 seats and the BSP 38.
On Feb 21, over a month after the SP-BSP alliance was announced, Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav made it clear that he was upset with the tie-up, questioning why Akhilesh Yadav gave "half" of the total seats in UP to Mayawati's party.
The remarks had come days after the SP patriarch created a stir in Parliament, saying he wished that Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns to power.