Akhilesh to make his debut in state polls from Karhal
LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will contest the Uttar Pradesh elections from Karhal constituency in Mainpuri district, party’s national spokesperson Ashutosh Verma said.
The party, however, is yet to make a formal announcement in this regard.
“Our national president Akhilesh Yadav will contest from Karhal seat,” Verma said.
Confirming the decision, party national secretary and spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said: “It is final, but we have not made a formal announcement yet.”
According to people familiar with the development, the party is likely to make former SP MP from Mainpuri and Mulayam Singh Yadav’s grand nephew, Tej Pratap Yadav, incharge of the district. Akhilesh, who is an MP from Azamgarh seat, had said on Wednesday that he would decide on contesting the elections after talking to the people of his parliamentary constituency.
“If I decide to contest, I will contest (2022 assembly elections) with the permission of the people of Azamgarh, who got me elected to the Lok Sabha,” Yadav, the parliamentarian from Azamgarh, told reporters at SP HQ in Lucknow.
While the state elections are scheduled to be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7, voting in Karhal seat is scheduled to be held in the third phase, on February 20.
Mainpuri has traditionally been a SP stronghold. Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav represents the constituency in Parliament.
In the 2017 assembly polls, SP candidate Sobran Yadav had secured 1.04 lakh votes from Karhal, defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’S Prem Shakya by 38,405 votes. Karhal has remained a stronghold of the Samajwadi Party since 1993. It was only in 2002 that the seat went to the BJP.
Ever since chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s candidature from Gorakhpur, the BJP’S stronghold, was announced, speculations were rife that Akhilesh would also be contesting the polls.
Both Yogi and Akhilesh have remained MPS in the past but never contested the assembly elections.
The two took the Vidhan Parishad route to become members of the state legislature and chief ministers.
Reacting to the decision, BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi told news agency PTI: “In the Lok Sabha elections, Akhilesh’s father Mulayam Singh Yadav could somehow win after the appeal of Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati. This time, the BJP will puncture his cycle in Karhal (Mainpuri) so that he cannot take the expressway to reach Lucknow.”