Akhilesh Yadav to join Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Rae Bareli

Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav will join the 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra', led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, in Rae Bareli on Tuesday, 20 February.

Top sources said that the Congress and SP are likely to finalise their seat-sharing arrangement in the state within the next two days.

The seat-sharing between the two parties has been stuck since 27 January when Akhilesh had announced 11 seats to the Congress which caught the party off-guard.

There have been no further developments in seat-sharing since then. There was no acknowledgement from Congress about the 11 seats though both parties constantly maintained that talks were going on.

In the meantime, Akhilesh accepted Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge's invitation to join the Nyay Yatra.

SP national secretary and spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said: "Akhilesh will join the Nyay yatra for some distance with Rahul. He will join the yatra in Rae Bareli -- most likely at Bachhrawan."

Bachhrawan is a Vidhan Sabha seat that the SP won in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

Rae Bareli and Amethi are two Lok Sabha constituencies where the SP has not fielded any candidates in several successive Lok Sabha elections. The two parties, despite being rivals earlier, had not been fielding candidates against the Gandhi and Yadav family members.