Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav filed his nomination from the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday. Accompanied by Samajwadi Party MP Ramgopal Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav submitted his nomination papers.
Akhilesh Yadav previously served as the Lok Sabha MP from Kannauj from 2000 to 2012. He resigned from the parliamentary seat in 2012 after being appointed as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. However, in 2017, his party failed to form a government in the state, and he subsequently submitted his resignation to the Governor. Akhilesh Yadav was elected as a Lok Sabha MP again in 2019, and later won a seat in the UP Assembly in 2022. Following the UP Assembly polls, he resigned as a Lok Sabha MP but retained his state assembly seat.
The voting for the Kannauj seat is scheduled to take place in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha election on May 13. Earlier, the Samajwadi Party had announced Tej Pratap Yadav, Akhilesh's nephew and son-in-law of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, as its candidate from Kannauj.
Under the seat-sharing agreement between the Samajwadi Party and Congress in Uttar Pradesh, Congress is contesting on 17 seats while the Samajwadi Party has the remaining 63 seats in the crucial state.
Shivpal Singh Yadav expressed confidence in Akhilesh's victory from the Kannauj seat, saying, "He will win with a big majority. Earlier, Akhilesh Yadav and Dimple Yadav won that seat (Kannauj). And this time again, Akhilesh Yadav will win. Dimple will win from Mainpuri. Everyone knows that Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) used to fight from here and win."
In another development, sources revealed that the Gandhi siblings Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi are also expected to enter the electoral arena in Uttar Pradesh. Priyanka Gandhi is likely to be named as the candidate from Sonia Gandhi's erstwhile seat Rae Bareli, while Rahul Gandhi will once again contest against Union Minister Smriti Irani in Amethi.
In the 2019 general elections, the BJP emerged victorious, securing 62 out of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, along with two seats clinched by its ally Apna Dal (S). Mayawati's BSP managed to secure 10 seats, while Akhilesh Yadav's SP garnered five. On the other hand, the Congress party managed to secure only one seat.
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