Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav formally filed his nomination for the Kannauj Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday. Accompanying him was Samajwadi Party MP Ramgopal Yadav.
Akhilesh Yadav previously held the position of Lok Sabha MP from 2000 to 2012. He vacated the Kannauj parliamentary seat in 2012 upon assuming the role of Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Despite his party’s inability to form a government in UP in 2017, leading to his resignation, Yadav returned as a Lok Sabha MP in 2019 and later secured a seat in the UP Assembly in 2022. Following the recent UP Assembly elections, Yadav relinquished his Lok Sabha membership while retaining his state assembly seat.
Voting for the Kannauj constituency is slated for the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 13. Tej Pratap Yadav, Akhilesh’s nephew and son-in-law of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, was earlier announced as the party’s candidate.
Under the seat-sharing arrangement between the Samajwadi Party and Congress in Uttar Pradesh, Congress is contesting on 17 seats, leaving the remaining 63 seats to the Samajwadi Party.
Earlier today, Shivpal Singh Yadav expressed confidence in Akhilesh’s victory from the Kannauj seat, citing historical family successes in the region.
Meanwhile, sources reveal that the Gandhi siblings, Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi, are poised to enter the electoral fray in Uttar Pradesh. Priyanka Gandhi is likely to contest from Rae Bareli, her mother Sonia Gandhi’s former stronghold, while Rahul Gandhi is expected to once again face off against Union Minister Smriti Irani in Amethi.
In the 2019 general elections, the BJP secured a dominant victory in Uttar Pradesh, winning 62 out of 80 seats, supported by two seats claimed by its ally Apna Dal (S). Mayawati’s BSP secured 10 seats, while Akhilesh Yadav’s SP managed to secure five. Conversely, the Congress party won just one seat.