LUCKNOW:  Having announced their alliance in mid-January, Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have released the list of respectively 37 and 38 constituencies they will be contesting in upcoming Lok Sabha elections as allies here on Thursday.

SP and BSP had earlier decided on an equal partnership and said they would contest on 38 seats each, but the Samajwadi Party had the onus of accommodating the other allies.

While the BSP will contest on 38 as decided earlier, SP has been left with 37 after parting on seat from its chunk for the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). As per the current seat sharing formula among the allies, RLD will be contesting on three seats—Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar and Mathura.

According to list signed by Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav, the SP has been given VVIp seats like Varanasi (PM Modi’;s parliamentary constituency), Lucknow (Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s constituency) , Gorakhpur (CM Yogi Adityanath’s stronghold ).

In fact, Gorakhpur, the seat from where Yogi Adityanath had been a five time MP, was won by the Samajwadi Party candidate supported by the BSP in the bypolls in March last year. Notably, the alliance had left the two seats – Amethi and Rae Bareli-- of Gandhi bastion while deciding to keep the Congress out of the gathbandhan in UP.

The 37 seats in the SP quota include Kairana, Moradabad, Sambhal, Rampur, Mainpuri, Firozabad, Badaun, Bareilly, Lucknow, Etawah, Kanpur, Kannauj, Jhansi, Banda, Allahabad, Kaushambi, Phulpur, Faizabad, Gonda, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Varanasi and Mirzapur.

The BSP will contest from Saharanpur, Bijnor, Nagina, Aligarh, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Dhaurahara, Sitapur, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Kaiserganj, Basti, Salempur, Jaunpur, Bhadohi and Deoria, among other constituencies.

Thursday's announcement seals the fate of SP-BSP alliance and closes the door on Congress unless a last-minute change of strategy. To questions on whether a resurgent Congress could divert votes from the SP-BSP alliance and help the BJP, both Mayawati and Akhilesh responded in the negative.

They said the Congress is more likely to draw upper caste votes, which would have gone to the BJP.

However, while going through the list, one can establish that most of the seats falling in urban areas have gone to the Samajwadis while those of rural areas have been taken by the BSP.

Moreover, 10 of 17 reserved seats have gone to Mayawati’s quota and rest seven have been left for the SP. GFX Total seats : 80 Seats in SP Quota

1. Kairana (west),

2. Moradabad (west)

3. Rampur (West)

4. Sambhal (West)

5. , Ghaziabad (West)

6. Hathras (Reserved-West)

7. Firozabad (central)

8. Mainpuri (central)

9. Etah (central)

10. Badaun (central)

11. Bareilly (Rohilkhand)

12. Pilibhit (Rohilkhand)

13. Kheri (Rohilkhand)

14. Hardoi (Reserved-Central)

15. Unnao (Central)

16. Lucknow(Central)

17. Etawah (Reserved-Central)

18. Kannauj (Central)

19. Kanpur (Central)

20. Jhnasi (Bundelkhand)

21. Banda (Bundelkhand)

22. Kaushambi (Reserved- Eastern)

23. Phulpur (Eastern)

24. Prayagraj (Eastern)

25. Barabanki (Reserved- Eastern)

26. Faizabad (Eastern)

27. Bahraich (Reserved- Eastern)

28. Gonda (Eastern)

29. Majarajganj (Eastern)

30. Gorakhpur (Eastern)

31. Kushinagar (Eastern)

32. Azamgarh (Eastern)

33. Balia (Eastern)

34. Chanduali (Eastern)

35. Varanasi (Eastern)

36. Mirzapur (Eastern)

37. Robertsganj (Reserved- Eastern)

BSP quota 1. Saharanpur

2. Bijnor

3. Nagina (Reserved-Western)

4. Amroha

5. Meerut

6. Gautambuddh nagar

7. Bulandhshar (Reserved-Western)

8. Aligarh

9. Agra (Reserved-Western)

10. Fatehpur Sikri

11. Aonla

12. Shajahanpur (Reserved-Western)

13. Dhaurara

14. Sitapur

15. Mishrikh (Reserved-Central)

16. Mohanlalganj (Reserved-Central)

17. Sultanpur (Eastern)