Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party on Tuesday announced its first list of 16 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Sitting MP Dimple Yadav has been fielded from Mainpuri, while party MP Shafiqur Rahman Barq will contest from Sambhal, according to the list of candidates released by the party on its official 'X' handle.

Ravidas Mehrotra, sitting MLA from Lucknow Central, has been named as the party candidate from Lucknow Lok Sabha seat.

Similarly, the sitting SP MLA from Katehari in Ambedkarnagar district, Lalji Verma, has been named as party candidate from Ambedkarnagar parliamentary constituency.

Akshay Yadav, son of senior SP leader Ramgopal Yadav, has been named as the candidate from Firozabad, while Dharmendra Yadav fielded from Budaun parliamentary constituency.

In the current Lok Sabha, the SP, that had fought in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 2019, has three MPs while BSP has 10 MPs. Sonia Gandhi, who represents the Rae Bareli seat, is the lone Congress MP from the State.

On January 19, the SP and RLD had announced their alliance for the Lok Sabha election, with SP leaving seven seats in western Uttar Pradesh for the RLD.

The SP has offered 11 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh to the Congress.

Samajwadi Party (SP) president and former U.P. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, on Saturday said that their "alliance" is off to a good start in the State.

Both the Congress and the SP are members of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), formed to take on the BJP-led Centre.

"Our cordial alliance with the Congress is off to a good start with 11 strong seats. This trend will move forward with the winning equation. 'INDIA' team and 'PDA' (Picchda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) strategy will change history," Yadav said in a post on X. (ANI)

PTI, ANI