News Brief
Uttar Pradesh: Akhilesh Yadav Set To Contest Lok Sabha Polls From Kannauj, Where BJP Defeated His Wife Dimple In 2019
Akhilesh Yadav, Samajwadi Party Chief
Clearing speculations around the Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate from Kannauj, the party's official X handle informed that Akhilesh Yadav will file his nomination for Lok Sabah elections tomorrow (25 April).
Kannauj is headed for the polls in the fourth phase of elections on 13 May and the last day of nomination filing for it is tomorrow.
Earlier, the SP had earlier declared Tej Pratap Singh Yadav as its candidate from Kannauj but despite that speculations were rife over Akhilesh's candidature.
When Akhilesh was asked about this earlier in the day, he said, "When nomination happens then you will come to know. It is possible that the information on the candidate will be out before nomination."
Akhilesh Yadav had earlier represented Kannauj from 2000 to 2012. He then left this seat to become Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister in 2012 and passed on the baton to his wife Dimple Yadav.
While Dimple represented the seat from 2012 to 2019, she lost the 2019 elections from here against Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Subrat Pathak, who is the BJP candidate this time also.
Meanwhile, Dimple Yadav is contesting from Manipuri, a seat she won in the 2022 by-polls, which was vacated by the demise of her father-in-law Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The BJP candidate Pathak had urged Akhilesh to contest so that there will be an interesting contest, otherwise SP candidate's security deposit will be confiscated as SP cadre will support him in Akhilesh's absence, he claimed.
Meanwhile, the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) changed its Kannauj candidate earlier this month after declaring Akeel Ahmad's name in March.
Ahmad's ticket was cut on the suspicion that he was close to Akhilesh Yadav. The BSP has now fielded another Muslim leader Imran Bin Zafar from here.
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