Even as the Congress is smarting from the paltry 11 Lok Sabha seats spared for it by the Samajwadi Party, the constituencies from where the first family of the main opposition party in Uttar Pradesh headed by Akhilesh Yadav would contest have been finalised. The members of the SP first family have also started campaigning in their respective constituencies.
The Congress, however, maintains that the seat-sharing talks are still on.
Akhilesh Yadav is all set to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Kannauj, a party bastion. His wife, Dimple Yadav, had lost this seat to Bharatiya Janata Party by a narrow margin of 12,353 votes in 2019. The SP had won the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat in five consecutive polls between 1998 and 2014. In the 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Akhilesh had contested and won from Kannauj. He first won the seat in a bypoll in 2000. Presently he is the sitting MLA from Karhal, which falls in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency, another SP stronghold.
“Social equations are favourable for the SP in Kannauj with the presence of around four lakh Muslim and three lakh Yadav voters. Other castes and communities too like the leadership of Akhileshji. He will contest from Kannauj. In the past, Akhilesh’s father and party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav too was elected from Kannauj,” said SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary.
Dimple Yadav, who was elected as MP from Mainpuri in a bypoll in 2022 after Mulayam Sing Yadav’s death, will contest from the same seat in the coming general elections to retain the legacy of her father-in-law.
Akhilesh Yadav’s uncle and party general secretary Shivpal Singh Yadav is likely to contest from Azamgarh, from where Akhilesh was elected in 2019, though the party lost the seat to the BJP in the 2022 bypoll.
The SP had lost the Azamgarh seat in 2022 when Akhilesh’s cousin Dharmendra Yadav was defeated by BJP’s Dinesh Lal Yadav, a Yadav face and Bhojpuri actor popularly known as Nirahua. Sources in the SP said it was necessary to field a member from the Yadav family to retain the hold on the Yadav community.
Dharmendra, who had lost the 2022 Azamgarh bypoll, will contest from Budaun. He had won the seat in 2009 and 2014, but lost to BJP’s Sanghmitra Maurya in 2019 by a small margin of 18,454 votes.
Akshay Yadav, another cousin of Akhilesh Yadav, is preparing to contest again from Firozabad, from where he had won in 2014 but was defeated in 2019. Akshay is the son of party secretary general and Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav.
In 2019, Shivpal Yadav had played a role in Akshay’s defeat. Contesting as a candidate of his own outfit, the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia), Shivpal had garnered 91,869 votes in Firozabad, where the margin between the BJP winner Chandra Sen Jadon and runner-up Akshay was only 28,781 votes. Shivpal is now back in the SP fold.
SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said, “An understanding has been made on these seats. But announcement of seats of party leaders as candidates will be made only after finalisation of candidates for all the seats”