Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav To Contest From Kannauj LS Seat

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will file his nomination from the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, April 25.

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The party took to micro-blogging site— X to confirm Yadav's move amid suspense over the seat the SP chief was going to contest in the Lok Sabha polls.

The development comes days after the Samajwadi Party declared Tej Pratap Yadav, nephew of Akhilesh Yadav, as its candidate from Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier, party’s leader Ram Gopal Yadav said Akhilesh Yadav was going to contest from the seat.

Tej Pratap, who is also the son-in-law of RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav, was the Samajwadi Party MP from Mainpuri between 2014-2019.

"The people have made up their minds that the INDIA bloc is coming as the future and BJP will be history in this election," Akhilesh Yadav was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Yadav has served as Lok Sabha MP from 2000-2012. He resigned from the Kannauj parliamentary seat in 2012 after he became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. In 2017, his party was unable to form government in UP and he submitted his resignation to the Governor.

Akhilesh was again elected Lok Sabha MP in 2019, and went on to be elected to the UP Assembly in 2022. Following the UP Assembly polls, Akhilesh resigned as Lok Sabha MP and retained his state Assembly seat.

There have been reports that Samajwadi Party workers in Kannauj were taken by surprise over Tej Pratap's candidature and were upset with the party's decision.