THE general elections are not too far in India and Samajwadi Party (SP), one of the country's major opposition parties, on Tuesday (30) declared names of 16 candidates that it will field in the polls the dates of which are yet to be unveiled.
The SP is a member of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) -- the bloc that prime minister Narendra Modi's opposition parties formed last year. The unilateral announcement made by the SP, a major player in India's most important electoral state Uttar Pradesh, comes days after its chief Akhilesh Yadav made a social media post on seat-sharing talks with the Indian National Congress that triggered speculation.
In his post on Saturday (27), Yadav, a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh posted in Hindi, "Our cordial alliance with Congress is off to a good start with 11 strong seats… This trend will move forward with the winning equation. 'India' team and 'PDA' strategy will change history."
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Uttar Pradesh sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha or Lower House of the Indian parliament, making it a prized state that major political parties eye to bag. Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party and its National Democratic Alliance had swept the state in both the 2014 and 2019 general elections, facilitating the prime minister's bid to win the top office two consecutive times.
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In state elections, too, the BJP has won Uttar Pradesh comprehensively in the 2017 and 2022 elections, leaving other parties such as the SP, Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party far behind.
Among the 16 candidates that the SP announced for the general elections due in April and May were Yadav's wife Dimple, who is currently an MP from Uttar Pradesh's Mainpuri constituency. Among other candidates fielded are state lawmakers Ravidas Mehrotra (Lucknow), Lalji Verma (Ambedkar Nagar), Awadhesh Prasad (Faizabad), Akshay Yadav (Firozabad), Dharmendra Tadav (Budaun), Devesh Shakya (Etah), Anu Tandon (Unnao), Utkarsh Verma (Kheri), Anand Bhadauria (Dhaurahra), Naval Kishore Shakya (Farrukhabad), Rajaram Pal (Akbarpur), Shivshankar Singh Patel (Banda), Ramprasad Chaudhary (Basti), and Kajal Nishad (Gorakhpur).
Ninety-three-year-old Shafiqur Rahman Barq, a five-time MP, was also fielded from the constituency of Sambhal, which he currently represents.
When the seat-sharing talks started between the two parties, the Congress reportedly wanted to contest in 30, including the 21 where it won in the 2009 general elections. But the SP was not ready to accommodate the grand-old party in more than 13 seats, informed sources said.
In the 2019 elections, the BJP won 62 seats in Uttar Pradesh while the SP and its ally Bahujan Samaj Party won only 15 (out of which SP won five). The Congress could win only one seat.
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A rescuer assists a resident through heavy mud following flash floods on August 27, 2026 in Trishuli, Nepal. A sudden flood swept through the Bhote Koshi River basin in northern Rasuwa on August 26, damaging settlements, roads and energy infrastructure as rescue teams searched for residents and foreign travellers reported out of contact. Hundreds were reported missing, as the death toll started to climb.Getty Images
Rescue personnel provide medical treatment to a child at an army rescue camp in Trishuli Batar, Nepal, on August 27, 2026. A sudden flood swept through the Bhote Koshi River basin in northern Rasuwa on August 26, damaging settlements, roads and energy infrastructure, as rescue teams searched for residents and foreign travellers reported out of contact. Hundreds were reported missing as the death toll began to climb. Getty Ima
Family members of missing flood victims react at the emergency ward of the Maharajgunj Medical Campus, part of the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, on August 28, 2026 in Kathmandu, Nepal. Authorities said the flash floods were triggered after a mass of ice, mud and rock collapsed into a Himalayan river near the Nepal-China border, leaving hundreds dead or missing and causing widespread damage in affected districts. Authorities continued the gruelling search for victims, many buried under metres of mud, as both China and Nepal issued fresh flooding alerts.Getty Images