Amid much fanfare and chants of “Abki Baar Pichhda Dalit Aur Alpsankhyak (PDA) Sarkar” (This time a government for backward classes, Dalits and Minorities) and “Netaji Amar Rahe” (May Netaji remain immortal), Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday filed his nomination papers from Uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj Lok Sabha Seat for the ongoing general elections.
Akhilesh was accompanied by his uncle Ram Gopal Yadav and other senior party leaders. However, the SP chief’s nephew Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, who was announced as the party’s Kannauj candidate earlier this week, was not part of the “show of strength”. Former Mainpuri MP Tej Pratap is also the son-in-law of erstwhile Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Akhilesh displayed a 24-year-old photograph from the beginning of his political career ahead of the 2000 Kannauj bypolls when he filed his nomination, before doing so again on Thursday.
“History will repeat itself, a new future will be formed,” he wrote on social media site X. The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister’s uncle Shivpal Yadav shared the post while wishing him luck, writing “Vijayi Bhava” (May you be victorious).
Voting will be held in Kannauj on May 13 in the fourth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. It comprises the Chhibramau, Tirwa, Kannauj, Bidhuna, and Rasulabad assembly segments.
After winning the constituency in 2000, Akhilesh retained it in the 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha polls. The seat is presently represented by Bharatiya Janata Party’s Subrat Pathak, who defeated SP candidate and Akhilesh’s wife Dimple Yadav in the 2019 general elections. Akhilesh, his late father Mulayam Singh Yadav (called “Netaji” by supporters), and Dimple have all been MPs from here.
Kannauj is one of the 80 Lok Sabha Seats of UP and for years was seen as an SP stronghold. This will be the fourth time that Akhilesh will contest from here.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP’s Subrat Pathak defeated SP’s Dimple Yadav by 12,353 votes in Kannauj. Pathak secured 5,63,087 (49.35%) votes, while Yadav received 5,50,734 (48.27%) votes. In the 2014 elections, Dimple Yadav won the seat with 4,89,164 (43.89%) votes, securing her second term. Pathak was the runner-up with 4,69,257 (42.10%) votes, and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Nirmal Tiwari secured the third position with 1,27,785 (11.46%) votes.
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