Akhilesh Yadav, former
Uttar Pradesh chief minister and leader of the Samajwadi Party, will be on the
ballot when India’s biggest state goes to polls for the third phase on Sunday. Akhilesh
is the son of Mulayam Singh Yadav, a three-time chief minister and one of the
tallest leaders of UP. The 48-year-old Akhilesh is contesting the Assembly
elections from Karhal constituency of Mainpuri district, a traditional Samajwadi
Party stronghold.

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The Karhal elections
will be critical for the state’s larger political processes as winning the
constituency is crucial in order for Akhilesh Yadav to pose a strong challenge
to the incumbent chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

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The importance of
the Karhal Assembly constituency was echoed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah when
he said that for the BJP, winning in Karhal is equivalent to winning 300 seats
in the 403-seat UP Assembly.

Addressing a
campaign rally in Karhal, Shah, BJP’s de-facto chief poll strategist, asked
those gathered, “Do you want BJP government with 300-plus seats under the
leadership of PM Modi and Yogi Ji?”

As supporters
cheered, he said, “We do not need to win 300 seats since the work of winning
300 seats can be completed from Karhal seat. You just need to vote for lotus in
Karhal and the Samajwadi Party will cease to exist in Uttar Pradesh.”

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Akhilesh’s
challenger in Karhal is Bharatiya Janata Party’s SP Singh Baghel, currently a
Minister of State for Law and Justice in the Union government. Baghel is a BJP
MP from Agra. The 61-year-old Union minister is a turncoat from the SP. He
represented the SP in the Lok Sabha thrice. He then moved to the Bahujan Samaj
Party (BSP) and eventually to the BJP.

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SP Singh Baghel
was recently given Z-category security cover by the premier Central Industrial
Security Force after his convoy was allegedly attacked at Attikullapur village
with sticks and stones. The minister filed an FIR (first information report)
with the Karhal police station.

The sitting MLA
from Karhal constituency is SP’s Sobaran Singh Yadav. In 2017, Yadav won the
seat with 49.8% of the vote. BJPs’ Ram Shakya came out second.