E-Paper
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav wins Uttar Pradesh's Kannauj
Yadav Parivar’s association with Kannauj dates back to 1999, when Akhilesh’s father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, won the seat.
Akhilesh Yadav, the chief of the Samajwadi Party, who has previously won three Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj, won again by a margin of 1,70,922, according to the Election Commission of India website.
The SP chief beat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Subrat Pathak, who finished second by securing 4,71,370 votes.
Yadav, a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 members to the lower house of Parliament, first won the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat in 2000 and later represented it in 2004 and 2009. This is his fourth bid for the seat in his family’s bastion.
The Yadav Parivar’s association with Kannauj dates back to 1999, when Akhilesh’s father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, won the seat. Since then, the seat has been helmed by a member of the family- either Akhilesh Yadav himself, or his wife, Dimple Yadav- until 2019.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the seat went to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Subrat Pathak, who defeated Dimple Yadav with a narrow margin of 1.08%.
Lok Sabha election 2024: Full coverage
Pathak received a vote share of 49.37%, while Dimple secured 48.29%. In 2019, Akhilesh Yadav was elected from Azamgarh but resigned after being elected to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly from the Karhal constituency in 2022.
The 50-year-old politician had defeated BJP candidate and actress Jaya Prada Nahata in the Lok Sabha polls, clinching a vote share of 60.4%, while his opponent received 35.15%.
When filing his nomination on the last day (April 25) for 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Akhilesh was asked by media persons about the delay. He responded, “There is an old saying: Strike the iron when it is hot. I am here at the right time.”
Read: Akhilesh Yadav accuses UP Police of detaining Samajwadi Party workers ahead of vote counting
The Bharatiya Janata Party had pitted its incumbent MP and perfume trader Subrat Pathak against him.
Kannauj went to polls in the fourth phase on May 13 and recorded a voter turnout of over 60 percent.
In Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party and the Congress sealed their pre-poll alliance for the Lok Sabha elections. As part of the pact, the Congress was offered 17 seats to contest in the state, while the remaining 63 went to the Samajwadi Party.
Polls for the 543 Lok Sabha seats were conducted in seven phases starting from April 19, with the last phase ending on June 1. The Bharatiya Janata Party is seeking a third consecutive term at the Centre with Narendra Modi as Prime Minister.
