The grand alliance of Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal will start its poll campaign by holding a joint rally at Deoband that will be addressed by the top leaders of these parties on April 7.

“The first rally of the alliance partners will be jointly addressed by Mayawati, Akhilesh Yadav and Ajit Singh on the second day of Navratra on April 7. Such rallies will be organised across the state in a systematic manner,” SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said in a statement issued in Lucknow on Thursday.

Deoband is in Saharanpur which goes to polls in the first phase of polling on April 11.

The decision to hold joint rallies was taken in a meeting between Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow on Wednesday. It was then communicated to RLD vice-president Jayant Chaudhary. It was decided that the joint rallies should start from the auspicious Navratra.

The three parties would also have joint flags with pictures of Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav. All hoardings will have pictures of both leaders along with the pictures of candidates, the size of which should not be bigger than that of the SP and BSP chiefs.

Chaudhary told this reporter that there was a thaw in relation between workers of both parties and wherever there were problems, they would be sorted out.

“The problem is not that serious as compared to the big challenge in the form of misrule of (Narendra) Modi government,” he said.

“All sections of society want to get rid of this ineffective government. The BJP leaders have no connect with villages but they claim themselves to be the messiah of farmers. They claim that Modi and Yogi (Adityanath) governments have transformed villages, but the fact is that farmers are not getting remunerative prices for their produce. Cane dues are mounting while law and order situation in the state is pathetic,” Chaudhary commented.

The SP spokesman and party secretary said that the alliance between SP, BSP and RLD had kindled a new hope among the people which in turn would manifest in anti-Modi votes.