Lucknow, March 17: Hours after releasing the fourth list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, Congress on Sunday announced that they are leaving seven seats vacant for Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal in Uttar Pradesh. Among the significant constituencies, the Congress has left include – Mainpuri, Kannauj, Firozabad, Gonda and Pilibhit.

Addressing a press conference on Sunday, UP Congress chief Raj Babbar said, “We are leaving 7 seats vacant for SP, BSP and RLD. These include Mainpuri, Kannauj, Firozabad and whatever seats Mayawati ji & RLD's Jayant ji and Ajit Singh contest from.” He also said that the party would not field any candidates from Gonda and Pilibhit constituencies, as BJP ally Apna Dal represents it. Lok Sabha Elections 2019 Schedule: Voting In 7 Phases From April 11 to May 19, Counting And Results On May 23; Check All Dates For General Elections.

Since the alliance with the SP and BSP didn’t work out in Uttar Pradesh, Congress is trying to reach out to regional parties, giving them an indication that it would provide outside support to them in the upcoming elections. Till now, Congress has released a list of 35 candidates for Uttar Pradesh.

Along with this, he also made another announcement. Babbar said, "We have reached an agreement on 7 seats with Jan Adhikar party (JAP), out of those 7, JAP will fight on 5 and we will fight on 2."

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Earlier, it had said that party president Rahul Gandhi and senior leader Sonia Gandhi would contest from Amethi and Raebareli seat. Also, Salman Khurshid (Farukkabad), RPN Singh (Kushi Nagar), Raj Babbar (Moradabad), Savitri Pule (Bahraich) and Indira Bhatti (Bijnor) would contest from Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha Elections 2019 Schedule: Constituency Wise Dates Of Voting And Results For UP General Elections. 

The Election Commission had announced that the polls in the state would be held in all the seven phases and the results for 80 seats would be announced on May 23.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 17, 2019 04:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).