Forget past differences, ensure victory of SP-BSP candidates: Mayawati

Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Tuesday appealed to workers of her party and the Samajwadi Party to forget their past differences.

On Saturday, the BSP and the SP announced an alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections to unitedly fight the BJP.

"Forget past differences and ensure victory of all joint candidates of the SP and the BSP. This will be my ideal birthday gift," Mayawati said at a press conference here on her 63rd birthday.

The SP and the BSP have decided on a 50-50 seat-sharing deal under which each party will contest 38 seats. Both parties will leave two seats for the smaller parties.

Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha seats.

The parties, however, will not contest in Amethi and Rae Bareli, represented by Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi respectively.

The 'gathbandhan' has kept the Congress out of the alliance.