Samajawai party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Kanauj MP Dimple Yadav, will be the star campaigner of the party during the state assembly elections to be conducted in seven phases. The three other lok Sabha MPs, all from the first family of the the Samajwadi party –Akshay Yadav, MP from Ferozabad and son of Ram Gopal Yadav, Dharmendra Yadav and Tej Pratap Singh Yadav are also in the list of the star campaigners of the party. Shivpal Yadav, the estranged uncle of the party national president Akhilesh Yadav is conspicuous by his absence in the list.Rajya Sabha MP Beni Prasad Verma is also missing in the list. His son Rakesh Verma, after being denied ticket from Ramnagar assembly seat in Barabanki has turned rebel and is likely to join the BJP.
The list, containing the names of total 40 party leaders, was release by the SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav on Tuesday. The list has been submitted to the Election Commission. The expenses on the election meetings conducted by the star campaigners of a political party is not included in the election expenditure of the candidate. The other names included in the list are national vice president Kironmoy Nanda, Azam Khan, Ram Gopal Yadav, Naresh Agarwal, Jaya Bacchan, state SP president Naresh Uttam,former MP Ramji lal Suman and youth leaders close to Akhilesh Yadav have also been included in the list. The youth leaders are Javed Abdi, Sanjay lather, Mohammed Abad and Abu Asim Azmi, the state president of the Maharashtra unit of the party. The list of star campaigners also includes nine MlCs –Udaivir Singh, Ram sakal Gujjar, Jaswant Singh Yadav, Rakesh Yadav, Sarojini Agarwal, Sahab Singh Saini, Virendra Singh Gujjar, Asim Yadav and Ramvriksh Yadav.