Akhilesh to contest LS poll from Kannauj; Mulayam from Mainpuri

Lucknow, January 22

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday said he would like to contest the next year’s general election from Kannauj constituency, currently held by his wife Dimple Yadav.

“I would like to contest from Kannauj,” he told reporters here after paying tribute to veteran socialist leader Janeshwar Mishra on his death anniversary.

Replying to a question, Akhilesh said ‘Netaji’ Mulayam Singh Yadav would contest the polls from Mainpuri.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the 78-year-old SP patriarch had contested from Azamgarh and Mainpuri and won both, but chose to retain Azamgarh to strengthen the party in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

He vacated Mainpuri, which was then won in a by-poll by his grandson, Tej Pratap Yadav.

The SP insiders said the decision of the party chief to contest the next general election from Kannauj was aimed at quelling allegations of promoting “dynasty” in the party.

Kannauj could, however, pose crucial test for the SP in the present scenario as in last year’s assembly election, the party had lost two of the three seats in the Lok Sabha constituency to the BJP while it won the Kannauj city seat by a meagre 2,000 votes.

To make matters worse, the SP lost all three nagarpalika chairmen seats and all five nagar panchayat chairmen seats in Kannauj in the recent civic polls.

Dimple Yadav had beaten the BJP candidate in 2014 by just 20,000 votes.

Akhilesh has represented Kannauj thrice in the Lok Sabha before relinquishing the seat after becoming chief minister in 2012.

Speaking about the current BJP government in the state, Akhilesh charged the Yogi Adityanath government with “failing” on all fronts, especially the law-and-order situation.

“The Yogi Adityanath government has failed on all fronts. There is no law and order in the state. The incident of dacoity on Sunday in Kakori, on outskirts of the state capital, has exposed the tall claims of the state government on the law and order front,” he said.

“Kakori, which was known for martyrs who laid down their lives for the sake of the country’s freedom, is now becoming infamous for dacoities,” he said.

Martyrs Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan, Rajendra Lahiri and Thakur Roshan Singh were hanged on December 19, 1927, for the Kakori conspiracy against the British.

Citing recent crime incidents in Kannauj and Mathura, Akhilesh accused the police of inflicting atrocities on people and said that under such circumstances only Samajwadi (socialist) ideology could fight for the people.

“The BJP divides society while Samajwadis unite people,” he said. PTI