Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav will be contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh. The…
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav greets his father and the party's founder Mulayam Singh Yadav on his birthday at the party office in Lucknow on Wednesday. (Photo: IANS)
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav will be contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh. The seat is currently held by his wife Dimple Yadav, who was elected to the Parliament in 2014.
After paying tributes to veteran socialist leader Janeshwar Mishra on his death anniversary on 22 January, the 44-year-old said, “I will like to contest from Kannauj.”
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He called Kannauj “a land dear to socialist ideologue Ram Manohar Lohia”.
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He also said that ‘Netaji’ – a term used by SP supporters to address Mulayam Singh Yadav – will be contesting from Mainpuri, an SP bastion since 1996.
Kannauj, about 120 kilometres from state capital Lucknow, has been a stronghold of the SP since 1998 when Pradeep Kumar Yadav won from the constituency.
It was one of the four seats the SP was able to retain when the BJP tsunami swept through the state in 2014.
Akhilesh contested from the seat in 2000 during the 13th Lok Sabha after his father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, vacated it. In 2012, Akhilesh relinquished the seat to become the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
The 78-year-old Mulayam Singh Yadav had won from both Mainpuri and Azamgarh in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He chose to keep Azamgarh following which his grandnephew, Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, contested and won from Mainpuri in a by-poll.
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