Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav remained closeted with party general secretary Ramgopal Yadav on Wednesday for the 140 assembly seats that go to polls on February 11 and 15. A formal announcement of the alliance is expected by Thursday with Congress general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad expected to arrive later this evening in Lucknow. “Muslims in the region are unlikely to go for RLD because of the lack of trust with Jat community. After several rounds of back channel talks, while the SP will contest on 290-300 seats, the Congress has reportedly sought 90-100 seats. SP insiders said while the Congress was ahead of SP on 56 seats, the RLD got more votes than SP on 26 seats.

Source: Hindustan Times January 19, 2017 07:34 UTC