Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati to hold joint rallies in Uttar Pradesh

The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will jointly hold 11 rallies in Uttar Pradesh.

The rallies will be held in Saharanpur on April 7, Badaun on April 13, Agra on April 16, Mainpuri on April 19, Rampur and Firozabad on April 20, Kannauj on April 25, Faizabad on May 1, Azamgarh on May 8, Gorakhpur on May 13 and Varanasi on May 16.

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The alliance will begin the poll campaign with a joint rally of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati at Deoband on 7 April in which RLD chief Ajit Singh will also be present.

Meanwhile, BSP chief Mayawati confirmed that her party and Jana Sena, which is headed by Telegu actor turned politician Pawan Kalyan, will fight elections together in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

SP and BSP are contesting the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh in alliance posing a formidable challenge to the BJP. According to the alliance, the SP is contesting 37 seats and BSP 38. Two seats - Rae Bareli and Amethi -have been left for the Congress.

READ: Yadav Pari'war' Again: Akhilesh Yadav Spurns Father Mulayam Singh Yadav's Appeal To Give Aparna Yadav The Sambhal Seat In The 2019 Lok Sabha Polls

In 2014 Lok Sabha election, NDA had won 73 seats from the state, SP had got just five seats, while BSP drew a blank. Recently SP and BSP forged an alliance to take on BJP in Lok Sabha elections 2019. The BSP chief's campaign outside the state will start from April 2 from Odisha.

Uttar Pradesh will go to polls during all the 7 phases of the election to be held on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19. Counting of votes will be done on May 23.