Lucknow, February 13: A day after Rahul Gandhi announced the party’s general secretaries – Priyanka Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia – would lead the campaign for 41 and 39 seats in Uttar Pradesh, Congress declared that they would make an alliance with Keshav Dev Maurya’s Mahan Dal for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Speaking to the media after the tie-up, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi said, “I welcome our new ally Keshav Dev Mauryaji (Mahan Dal). We will strengthen our fight and contest together. We will put all our efforts vigorously and achieve the target given by our party chief Rahul Gandhi.” Adding more, she said, “2019 ki ladai hum ekdum ji jaan se ladenge (We will fight the 2019 election with full force).” However, she refrained from commenting over ‘Mahagatbandhan’, where Congress hasn’t been given a spot. Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Priyanka Gandhi Gets Charge of 41 Seats Including Amethi and Raebareli in UP, Jyotiraditya Scindia Gets 39.

Confirming the details, the AICC general secretary and in-charge of western Uttar Pradesh, Jyotiraditya Scindia said, “Congress and Mahan Dal will fight elections together in Uttar Pradesh.” With this pre-election tie-up, the Congress is eying to claim influence among the backward castes, such as – Shakyas, Nishads, Rajbhar, Mauryas and Kuchwahas in the state.

After the official tie-up, Mahan Dal’s Keshav Dev Maurya said, as ABP quotes, “We had a similar pact for 2014 general polls, but unfortunately it didn’t materialise in assembly elections. Earlier governments made a lot of noise on the reservation but could not give any recognition to Kushwahas, Nishads, Rajbhar.”

In the earlier announcement on Tuesday evening, the Congress in its statement had revealed that Priyanka Gandhi would take charge of crucial constituencies like – Lucknow, Amethi, Rae Bareli, Sultanpur, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Phulpur, Allahabad, Barabanki, and Kushinagar. While Scindia would be the in-charge for Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Moradabad, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Pilibhit, Dhaurahra, Kanpur and Farrukhabad seats.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 13, 2019 08:41 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).