Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will contest the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, news agency ANI reported quoting sources. This will be the Azamgarh MP’s first assembly elections.
The 48-year-old had said earlier that he will not contest the upcoming elections. It is not confirmed which seat he will contest from.
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According to an NDTV report, pressure mounted on Yadav after the BJP confirmed that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will contest his maiden assembly elections.
The chief minister has been fielded from the Gorakhpur (Urban) constituency. The BJP is hoping fielding Adityanath in the election can bring the party some gains in the Eastern UP region.
The 49-year-old priest-turned-politician is a Lok Sabha MP from Gorakhpur and the head of the influential Gorakhpur Mutt.
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The Samajwadi Party has emerged as the primary opposition to the BJP in the upcoming assembly elections. The ruling party was dealt big blows ahead of the crucial polls as three cabinet ministers and a number of MLAs resigned to join the SP.
However, in a jolt to the SP, former chief minister and founder Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav joined the BJP today.
Aparna Yadav contested the 2017 elections from Lucknow Cantt on a Samajwadi party ticket. She lost to Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who quit the Congress and joined the BJP.
Swami Prasad Maurya, Dharam Singh Saini, and Dara Singh Chauhan are the three former UP cabinet ministers that have joined the SP, along with MLAs Vinay Shakya, Roshan Lal Verma, Mukesh Verma, and Bhagwati Sagar.
Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) – which along with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is projecting a united front against the BJP – confirmed that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will campaign for the SP in the UP polls.
Election to the 403-member Uttar Pradesh assembly will be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7. Results will be counted on March 10.
