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2024 LS polls: SP chief looks to reclaim bastion
SP president Akhilesh Yadav's decision to contest 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Kannauj after 15 years is crucial for party's stronghold and INDIA bloc's strategy in UP.
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KANNAUJ Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav’s decision to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Kannauj seat after a gap of 15 years assumes significance for two reasons.
First the party wants to reclaim its stronghold at any cost. Second, the opposition INDIA bloc doesn’t want any of the strong seats unattended, especially considering the limited options in Uttar Pradesh.
The seriousness of the party’s intentions could be gauged from the absence of Akhilesh’s wife Dimple Yadav, former Kannauj MP, uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav and nephew Tej Pratap Yadav during the SP chief’s nomination filing. Barring Ram Gopal Yadav, no one from the Yadav family was in Kannauj on the occasion.
All of them were focusing in their respective areas. Dimple is in the poll fray from Mainpuri seat, considered another family pocket borough. Shivpal is busy in Budaun from where his son Aditya is contesting election. Tej Pratap has the responsibility of the Mainpuri seat.
One SP leader said, “Akhilesh Yadav has come back to reclaim his legacy after 15 years. The loss of this seat was shocking for everyone in 2019. Kannauj will be wrested in 2024.” The party won this seats in all the elections since 1998 till 2019. Akhilesh made his political debut from Kannauj in 2000. He then secured comfortable victories from the seat in 2004 and 2009 too.
In 2012, he resigned to become the chief minister and fielded his wife from Kannauj and she too emerged victorious. However, her victory margin dropped in 2014 elections and she eventually lost the seat by 12,000 votes to BJP’s Subrat Pathak in 2019.
“For the last two years, party workers have been working on the ground keeping Akhilesh as the next candidate in mind. When Tej Pratap’s name was floated, the local leadership made it clear the workers did not agree to his name,” the SP leader said.
Party’s district unit president Kaleem Khan said the party president can campaign all over the Uttar Pradesh to increase the tally of party and that of INDIA bloc.”Kannauj will take care of his election,” he said.
