New Delhi: Samajwadi Party (SP) Chief Akhilesh Yadav is set to contest the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh, as announced by his party on Wednesday through a social media post. The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister will file his nomination papers tomorrow, according to SP’s statement.
Samajwadi Party in a post on X (formerly Twitter) wrote, “Honorable National President Shri Akhilesh Yadav will file nomination papers as Samajwadi Party candidate from Kannauj Lok Sabha tomorrow at 12 noon.”
Akhilesh Yadav’s decision to contest from Kannauj will lead to SP leader Tej Pratap Singh Yadav withdrawing his candidacy. Tej Pratap, Akhilesh’s nephew, had been named as the initial candidate earlier this week
The decision to field Yadav from Kannauj, a traditional SP stronghold, has put an end to the speculations regarding his return to the Lok Sabha battleground. Earlier, SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav confirmed the party’s decision, highlighting Kannauj’s significance as a family bastion that has previously elected Yadav, his father, and his wife to Parliament.
Kannauj, which was won by the BJP’s Subrat Pathak in the 2019 elections, has a history of being a stronghold for the Samajwadi Party. Yadav’s wife had secured the seat in a bypoll in 2012 and retained it in the subsequent 2014 general elections. Prior to this, Akhilesh Yadav himself had won the seat in the 2000 bypoll and later in the 2004 and 2009 general elections.
The constituency of Kannauj is slated to vote in the fourth phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, which is scheduled for May 13.
