A day after the Congress announced its first list of 11 candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Samajwadi Party on Friday declared six names for the upcoming polls, including that of Mulayam Singh Yadav, who will contest from Mainpuri.

The announcement has diminished the possibility of the Congress entering into a ‘mahagathbandhan’ (grand alliance) with the SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh even as some unverified reports claimed that back-channel talks were on between the Congress and Samajwadi Party leaders.

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However, Friday’s announcement by the Samajwadi Party seemed to have firmed up the proposition of a three-cornered contest between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, SP-BSP-RLD alliance and the Congress being witnessed in Uttar Pradesh.

The announcement of the 2019 Lok Sabha poll schedule is likely to be made by the Election Commission of India in the next few days.

Apart from Mulayam, the other candidates in the Samajwadi Party’s first list are Dharmendra Yadav from Budaun (he is the sitting MP), Akshay Yadav from Firozabad (he is also the sitting MP), Kamlesh Katheria from Etawah (reserved), Bhailal Kol from Robertsganj (reserved) and Shabbir Balmiki from
Bahraich (reserved).

The Samajwadi Party patron’s candidature from Mainpuri meant that his grand-nephew and sitting MP, Tej Pratap Yadav is likely to be readjusted in some other constituency.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Mulayam in his capacity as the Samajwadi Party president had contested from Mainpuri and Azamgarh. He won from both, but retained Azamgarh and resigned from Mainpuri. Tej Pratap won the byelection from Mainpuri. However, in 2016, Mulayam was unseated as the president of the party and was relegated to the position of patron of SP by his son and party president Akhilesh Yadav.

That Mulayam had virtually no say in the party’s affairs, was evident in his recent remark that he did not know what was his role in the party, and also from which constituency he will contest the polls.

The SP patron’s candidature from the Yadav stronghold of Mainpuri was in tune with Akhilesh’s choice. The SP president has maintained that ‘netaji’ would contest from Mainpuri.

Mulayam as SP candidate from Mainpuri has also set at rest speculations of him being fielded by his brother Shivpal Singh Yadav, who is the president of Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia). Involved in a bitter dispute with his nephew Akhilesh, Shivpal formed his party last year after severing ties with the Samajwadi Party. He is on record to have said that the PSP (Lohia) had been formed with ‘netaji’s’  (Mulayam) blessings and even offered to field Mulayam from Mainpuri as PSP (Lohia) candidate.

The name of the Samajwadi candidate from Kannauj has not been announced. The seat is represented in the Lok Sabha by Akhilesh’s wife Dimple Yadav, but with the possibility of her not contesting the polls in 2019, it has raised speculations of the SP chief contesting from Kannauj. Akhilesh is also being mentioned as a possible candidate from Azamgarh which has a sizeable Yadav and Muslim population.