Lucknow: It’s official! Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will contest in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election for the first time. The party said that he will be contesting from the Karhal constituency in the Mainpuri district. The district has traditionally been an SP stronghold. This comes days after there were speculations that Akhilesh would contest from the Gopalpur seat in the Azamgarh district. Announcing the decision, the SP chief promised to make Lucknow the IT hub and create 22 lakh jobs for the youths in the sector.
Reacting to Akhilesh Yadav’s candidature, the BJP said it’s a “misconception” of the SP chief that Mainpuri is a “safe seat” for him. “And we will clear it,” BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said. Akhilesh, who is an MP from the Azamgarh seat, had earlier said that he would decide on contesting the Uttar Pradesh polls after talking to the people of his parliamentary constituency. Voting in Karhal will be held on February 20th. One must note that Akhilesh Yadav, the Lok Sabha MP from Azamgarh constituency, has never contested a state election. When he became the Uttar Pradesh chief minister in 2012, he took the Legislative Council route.
The Uttar Pradesh 2022 polls will be held in 7 phases starting from February 10th. The counting of votes will take place on March 10th. The 2017 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh were also held in 7 phases and the BJP and its allies came out of the elections as the ultimate winner, bagging 312 of the states’ 403 Assembly constituencies. This election is likely to witness a four-cornered fight between the ruling BJP, Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, the Congress and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party.