Uttar Pradesh Key Candidate

The Samajwadi Party (SP) national president and the former state chief minister (2012-2017) is also a four-time Member of Parliament. Akhilesh, son of SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, is currently the Azamgarh MP and is contesting the 2022 Assembly polls for the first time from Karhal in his father’s Lok Sabha constituency Mainpuri. He is the primary opposition against the ruling BJP and Karhal is close to his ancestral village Saifai. Both the constituency and the region where Akhilesh is contesting from is an SP stronghold. Akhilesh belongs to one of the biggest political families in the country – his father (the former union defence minister, ex-CM of UP), his uncle Shivpal Yadav (former UP minister), another uncle Ramgopal Yadav (Rajya Sabha member), wife Dimple Yadav (former Kannauj MP), among others.