Akhilesh Yadav, Rahul Gandhi to brief press this Sunday

Out of the 403 assembly seats, Congress will be contesting in 105 and SP the rest. Despite last minute hiccups, the two parties stitched together an alliance in time before the first phase of polling begins on February 11. Seat-sharing talks between the two parties threatened to derail, until a reported last-minute intervention from Congress star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. She reportedly salvaged the alliance and, also, managed to make the ruling SP concede 105 seats as part of the deal. Differences still remain between the SP and Congress, however, with state leaders wrangling over 10 assembly seats that comes under Amethi and Rae Bareli. The SP have already announced the names of five candidates out of the 10 seats in the region, much before the alliance was announced. Congress leaders are reportedly miffed that the SP still haven’t withdrawn their candidatures. They feel that the party cadre has worked hard enough in the last five years to ensure that the Congress wins in these seats.

Opinion poll surveys from last year put BJP in the drivers’ seat. SP fared poorly in most surveys, even finishing third, behind BSP, in a few. However, Samajwadi Party has been buoyed by the elevation of Akhilesh as the party’s national president and the alliance with the Congress.