Lucknow, Mar 12 (IANS): Leaders of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP) have decided to work together so that the alliance between them percolates to the grass root level in view of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

UPCC President, Ajay Rai and Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra, visited the SP headquarters on Tuesday and interacted with the party’s functionaries.

Senior Congress leader, Ajay Rai told IANS on Tuesday, “We will work together with SP with full strength to ensure the victory of the INDIA bloc. For this, we will work together day and night.”

The meeting was essentially aimed at easing tensions between the two parties and paving the way for smoother interaction in the future.

SP chief, Akhilesh Yadav, also introduced the Congress leaders to the party’s office-bearers in districts where the Lok Sabha seats have been allocated to the grand old party.

“This is the first meeting of its kind which was attended by the presidents of the Lok Sabha and district units. They deliberated for coordination between organisational workers of the two parties on how to work together and support the candidate at the ground level,” said former UP CM, Akhilesh Yadav.

He added that the two parties would soon decide on the responsibilities to be assigned to individuals. Coordination committees are also likely to be set up at the state and district levels.

Under the seat-sharing agreement between both parties as part of the INDIA bloc partnership in the state, the Congress will fight on 17 seats.

The Lok Sabha seats included in the Congress quota are Rae Bareli, Amethi, Varanasi, Kanpur City, Fatehpur Sikri, Basgaon, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Maharajganj, Amroha, Jhansi, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Sitapur, Barabanki, and Deoria.