Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj seat, his party said Wednesday evening in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Mr Yadav, a former UP Chief Minister, will file his nomination papers at noon tomorrow, the SP said.
The Kannauj seat was a Samajwadi Party stronghold till the BJP’s Subrat Pathak won it for his party in the 2019 election. Before that, the seat was held for two terms by his wife Dimple Yadav. And in the three previous polls – the 2000 bypoll and the 2004 and 2009 full elections – Mr Yadav won the seat.
The 2000 bypoll was required because Akhilesh Yadav’s father, SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, died. Mulayam Yadav won the seat in the 1999 general election.