He said the rally will give a further momentum to the campaign of the “grand alliance”, which he claimed is very comfortably placed in the state. After cobbling together the alliance, Akhilesh Yadav had announced that joint rallies will be held in different parts of the state.

Yadav and Mayawati had together drawn up a strategy to start the campaign during ‘Navratri’, which began Saturday, from western UP, a leader said. The SP and the BSP, which announced their alliance in January, will contest on 37 and 38 seats respectively. The RLD will fight on three seats.

The alliance has decided not to field candidates from Rae Bareli and Amethi, the constituencies held by Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Yadav, Mayawati and RLD’s Ajit Singh will address 11 joint rallies between April 7 and May 16, a spokesperson said.

After Deoband, rallies will be held in Badaun, Agra, Mainpuri, Rampur, Firozabad, Kannauj, Faizabad, Azamgarh, Gorakhpur and Varanasi. In Mainpuri, the SP has fielded Mulayam Singh Yadav, while Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav is contesting from Kannauj.