Congress-SP differences on seat sharing will be ironed out: Congress

As deadlock over seat-sharing continued to dog the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress on Thursday said that "talks are on and the differences will be ironed out soon".

The candidates of both the parties have filed nomination papers for at least seven seats in the first phase.

Congress wants to contest 7-8 seats out of the 10 in the parliamentary constituencies represented by Congress President Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli) and Vice President Rahul Gandhi (Amethi).

However, the SP has not yet withdrawn the five candidates they announced in Rae Bareli and Amethi.

Congress has so far declared 68 candidates. Out of these, it declared 25 candidates on Wednesday.

"Work is going on. As far as I have come to know, the senior leaders of the Congress party are working together on this.

"I read in the newspapers that there are difference of opinions. When two parties have already come together, there will be small differences," said Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan.

"For the good of the nation, we have forged a political and secular alliance. All these problems will be ironed out in a week or 10 day's time," he added.

--IANS

sid/rn