Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati met in Delhi on Friday to discuss seat-sharing formula for their alliance in Uttar Pradesh to take on formidable BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Once bitter rivals, now allies against the BJP, the two have reportedly agreed to keep the Congress out of their alliance in the state which has 80 Lok Sabha seats up for grabs. 

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Sources said the two leaders met at Mayawati's residence in New Delhi and the meeting lasted for over one and a half hours. SP General Secretary and Akhilesh confidante Ramgopal Yadav was also present in the meeting. While the alliance between the two parties in UP is almost final, the two leaders are said to have discussed seat sharing formula which will be announced soon. 

According to sources, the two parties will contest elections on equal number of seats and will also accommodate smaller parties, besides the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which has its base in western UP.

Sources said that both SP and BSP are likely to contest 35 seats each while RLD may get 4 seats under the agreement. The alliance will not contest Raebareli and Amethi, represented in Lok Sabha by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi respectively, and will also leave four seats for smaller allies. 

While the discussion on seats sharing and which seat falls under which party's kitty will continue in coming weeks, both parties have agreed to keep the Congress out of the alliance. 

Last month, sources had said that the two parties had been in talks for seat sharing for almost a year and official announcement was likely to be made in this regard on January 15, 2019, when BSP supremo Mayawati celebrates her birthday. 

A senior BSP leader, however, rejected suggestions that his party would forge an alliance with the Samajwadi Party for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls without Congress. "It can never be true, no such things has happened," BSP general secretary Satish Misra had told reporters.

Prof Ramgopal Yadav had said late last month that Mayawati and Akhilesh would decide on the formation of Grand Alliance in Uttar Pradesh.

"BSP chief Mayawati and SP president Akhilesh Yadav will decide with whom the Grand Alliance has to be formed in Uttar Pradesh," he said, insisting that a grand alliance of parties would come up in Uttar Pradesh too.

A coming together of the BSP and SP is likely to dent the BJP's prospects in the state which has 80 Lok Sabha seats, highest among the states, where it won 73 seats with its partners. The strength of SP-BSP alliance was on display last year when they snatched Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats from the BJP in the bypolls. Later, the RLD defeated BJP to take control of Kairana Lok Sabha seat.

According to a ZEE-VMR analysis after assembly election results in 5 states, BJP is likely to lose 50 seats in north India if SP, BSP and Congress join hands. 

North India has a total of 10 states, with 172 seats. In 2014, the BJP won 137 of them and Congress 9. Based on state results, it is estimated that the BJP will win only 87 seats while Congress will get around 30. Including allies,the total count for NDA may go up to 91. However, UPA – Congress, SP and BSP combined – could see their total count go up to 76. Others, non-NDA and non-UPA parties could get 5 seats.