Uttar Pradesh assembly polls 2017: Rajnath Singh ’s son Pankaj will be contesting from the crucial Noida assembly constituency. (Reuters)

On a day filled with a string of political announcements, what with Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, Congress, and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) all unveiling their respective manifestoes, the saffron party also went ahead to announce its second list of candidates. The striking part was the revelation that Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj will be contesting from the crucial Noida assembly constituency. Another top politician, former senior Congress leader and now BJP member, Rita Bahuguna will contest from Lucknow Cantt, Siddharth Nath Singh to contest from Allahabad West, and Garima Singh will contest from Amethi.

Here is the list of candidates:

At another event in Lucknow, the Samajwadi Party and Congress officially announced their tie-up for the Uttar Pradesh elections. The division of seats according to this understanding was that SP will get 298 seats to contest from and Congress will have 105. This was announced by Congress state head Raj Babbar and SP’s Naresh Uttam.

While on the other hand, Samajwadi Party and Congress forged an alliance to jointly contest all the 403 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh and said that their alliance will keep communal forces away from the state.

“For unity and intergrity of India and following secular ideology, we will continue our fight under SP National president Akhilesh Yadav,” state Samajwadi Party chief Naresh Uttam told a press conference addressed jointly with UP PCC president Raj Babbar.

The PCC chief said Congress has accepted SP’s offer of 105 seats keeping in mind the prevailing situation in the country and also the atmosophere in the state.

“Keeping these factors in mind, Congress leadership agreed to strike an alliance to thwart BJP’s divisive politics and at the same time to boost secularism and promote communal and social harmony.

“Our ideologies are not different. We share many common ideologies,” he said, adding both the parties believed in social justice and development, peace and good atmosphere.

He said the alliance between the two youth leaders — Akhilesh and Rahul Gandhi — will ensure that politcs transcends narrow boundaries of caste and religion.

He also said BJP had created hardships for the people with its note ban decision. “Now people have an opportunity to teach BJP a lesson,” he said.

(With agency inputs)