UP: SP-Cong seat sharing runs into rough weather

Talks for a Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance have failed, a senior leader of the Uttar Pradesh's ruling party said earlier in the day.

Samajwadi Party on Friday released names of its candidates for 210 Assembly seats in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, accommodating Shivpal Yadav, the warring uncle of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, along with controversial state minister

The party released two separate lists of 191 and 19 candidates for five phases of the seven-phase polling beginning on February 11.

Shivpal will contest from Jaswantnagar, the constituency sought for him by SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Rakesh Verma, son of Rajya Sabha member Beni Prasad Verma whose name had figured in Shivpal's list, was replaced by Akhilesh loyalist Arvind Singh Gope, minister and sitting MLA from Ramnagar seat (Barabanki).

Akhilesh's party didn't even grant Congress seats in Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituencies, which are represented in Parliament by Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.

An angry Congress summoned an emergency meeting of its senior central and state's leaders in Delhi and called back Babbar, who had landed in Lucknow to announce an alliance.

But Babbar, who was supposed to leave for the national capital in the afternoon, came back from the Lucknow airport to meet the CM.

No immediate details were available on what was discussed between the two leaders.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad had on January 17 announced that his party will fight elections in Uttar Pradesh in alliance with the Samajwadi Party.