Akhilesh Yadav has yet again taken the Lok Sabha plunge, and will fight from the Samajwadi Party’s bastion of Kannauj seat in the Lok Sabha elections. He is the MLA from Karhal seat since 2022, the first time Yadav had contested as an MLA.
This means that the entire Yadav family is now fighting from its stronghold Yadav belt. Akhilesh Yadav will fight from Kannauj, his wife Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri, senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav’s son Akshay Yadav from Firozabad, and Shivpal Yadav’s son Aditya Yadav from Badaun. Notably, Akshay and Aditya are the first cousins of Akhilesh Yadav.
This is a big attempt by the Samajwadi Party’s first family to reclaim its strong areas from the BJP which has made strong inroads here in the last 10 years. BJP won the Firozabad, Badaun and Kannauj seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, while the late Mulayam Singh Yadav had won Manipuri. Dimple Yadav later won the by-poll from Mainpuri too.
SP had won all these four seats in 2014, despite the Narendra Modi wave. Hence, the loss here in 2019 had hurt the SP the most. This explains why Akhilesh Yadav has now decided to contest from Kannauj though he had earlier said that he wanted to remain in the state Assembly as an MLA to take on Yogi Adityanath government ahead of the all-important state election battle in 2027.
Akhilesh Yadav had two days ago announced a relative, Tej Pratap Yadav, as the candidate from Kannauj, before changing the decision on Wednesday. He will file his nomination on Thursday, the last day of filing nominations. SP feels that Akhilesh Yadav’s nomination could have a positive impact for it on all four seats of the Yadav belt.
Kannauj is special for Akhilesh Yadav as he won his first Lok Sabha election from here in year 2000, in 2004 and 2009. Dimple Yadav won this seat uncontested in 2012 and again in 2014, before BJP’s Subrat Pathak shocked all by defeating Dimple Yadav from here in 2019 by 12000-odd votes.
Pathak is again in the contest from Kannauj for the BJP and has dared Akhilesh to the fight. Besides a strong proportion of Yadav’s in this region, it is also the potato belt where farmers grow the crop in big numbers and procurement is a major poll issue. The Yadav first family is fighting for its political relevance from the region this time.
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