Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav will contest the Assembly elections from Karhal seat in Mainpuri district, party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav told reporters on Saturday.
“This will send out a message that like the other candidates, he too wants to win in the court of the people,” Ram Gopal said.
Akhilesh, a four-time MP, had never before contested an Assembly election, choosing to be a member of the legislative council during his stint as chief minister from 2012 to 2017. This has often been held against him.
Observers suggested that Karhal was not just a safe seat for Akhilesh but suited his plan of camping in nearby Saifai, his ancestral village in Etawah district, for a prolonged period during the polls.
From Saifai, Akhilesh is expected to manage the campaign in 29 Assembly constituencies across the eight districts of Mainpuri, Etawah, Etah, Firozabad, Kasganj, Airaiya, Kannauj and Farrukhabad, which are Samajwadi strongholds.
A Samajwadi source told this newspaper: “Our every decision will be based on the BJP’s moves.”
He said the decision to field Akhilesh from a “safe seat” was taken only after the BJP announced chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s candidature from his hometown of Gorakhpur. Adityanath too had been an MLC and will be contesting his first Assembly election.
“Karhal is a safe seat for Akhilesh as it is here that his father Mulayam (Singh Yadav) practised wrestling and then worked as a schoolteacher before joining politics,” the source said.
Sobaran Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party has been winning from Karhal since 2007. Mulayam is five-time MP from Mainpuri, which the Samajwadis have held since 1996.
Akhilesh won the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat in 2000 (by-election), 2004 and 2009. Mulayam was Kannauj MP in 1999 and Akhilesh’s wife Dimple Yadav won the seat in 2012 (by-election) and 2014.
Currently, Akhilesh is MP from Azamgarh. He recently said he would take permission from the people of Azamgarh to move elsewhere to contest the Assembly elections.
Karhal will vote in the third phase on February 20.
