The Samajwadi Party on Wednesday announced on X that party’s chief Akhilesh Yadav will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh. Kannauj has been the constituency that sent him to Parliament thrice, along with his wife Dimple Yadav and the late SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. Mr. Yadav, a former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, is scheduled to file his nomination papers at noon tomorrow. Despite winning the Azamgarh seat in 2019, he resigned after being elected to the UP Assembly from Karhal in 2022.
There has been speculation surrounding the potential return of the SP leader to the Lok Sabha battlefield.
According to sources, the decision to switch constituencies stemmed from dissatisfaction among SP workers on the ground, who were eager for the party leader to contest from the family seat. Initially, Mr. Yadav had chosen not to contest this election as he wanted time to strategize the overall plan. Akhilesh Yadav’s anticipated return to his home constituency implies that SP leader Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, who was previously named as the candidate earlier this week, will not be contesting.
Akhilesh Yadav won the seat in the 2000 bypoll and retained it in the 2004 and 2009 general elections, winning by more than three lakh and 2.5 lakh votes respectively.