Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who recently said he would not contest in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, seemed to have left the door ajar on Wednesday, telling that he would only do so “if the party wants”. He also said that his own priority was to see the ruling BJP “wiped out”.

Akhilesh Yadav will have to surrender Azamgarh seat if he stands for state elections.

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Speaking to NDTV, Yadav said, “That statement was twisted. If the Samajwadi Party decides, then I will contest.” 

“I want to see the BJP wiped out,” he said, echoing what he told NDTV last week. At that time, while campaigning in Muzaffarnagar, he declared that a pincer movement of angry farmers and the alliance led by his party would “close the doors (to retaining power in UP) to the BJP”.

According to PTI, on November 1, Yadav said, “(I) will not be contesting the polls”.

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Shortly afterwards, the Samajwadi Party rushed to offer a clarification; Aashish Yadav, a close aide, tweeted: “Whether or not Akhilesh Yadav will contest will be decided by the party”.

Akhilesh Yadav is a three-time MP from the Kannauj seat. He contested from and won the Azamgarh seat in 2019. He has never contested a state election; he sat out the 2012 and 2017 Assembly polls.

Nevertheless, he led the Samajwadi Party to an emphatic win in 2012.

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Ahead of the 2022 election, the former UP Chief Minister – who has walked away from the Congress – is working with regional parties to take on the BJP. His new allies include the OP Rajbhar-led Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj; Mr Rajbhar was part of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s government for two years.

Uttar Pradesh will go to polls for a new government next year, and polls in the country’s most populous state are widely seen as a bellwether for the national election.

With Lok Sabha polls due in 2024, the BJP will be keen to not only retain power in UP, but also do so with a commanding mandate to reinforce its edge after multiple defeats in the April-May round of Assembly elections.