Lucknow: Amid speculations whether or not Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav will contest the Lok Sabha polls, Akhilesh further intensified the suspense by saying: “Let the auspicious day come...On Navratri day, you will get all the information...whosoever our workers (in Kannauj) want will be the face (here)”.
Akhilesh made the comment at a press conference in Kannauj after a workers’ rally in the constituency that marked his debut in Parliament and initiation into politics in 2000.
Navratri falls in mid-April.
The SP leadership in Kannauj, the district outfit and workers had already been asking for over a year that Akhilesh contest the Lok Sabha poll again.
Kannauj is the only ‘Yadav clan’ constituency where the SP has not declared its candidate yet. in all other such constituencies like Mainpuri, Badaun, Azamgarh and Firozabad, the4 SP has announced candidates. Initially, there were speculations that Akhilesh might contest either Azamgarh or Kannauj seat or both.
But last fortnight the party announced Akhilesh’s cousin and former Badaun MP Dharmendra Yadav as the candidate for the Azamgarh seat. Subsequently, when Akhilesh met jailed SP leader and former Rampur MP Azam Khan in Sitapur jail, he proposed that Akhilesh contest from Rampur. However, Maulana Mohibullah, the Imam of Delhi’s Parliament Street mosque was announced as Rampur candidate. Thereafter, there was fresh speculation that Akhilesh might not contest the LS 2024 polls at all and focus entirely on the election organisation and campaign of the party.
However, his going to Kannauj, meeting the party outfit and holding a workers’ conference there triggered fresh conjectures. —The constituency goes to polls in the fourth phase on May 13.
{{/usCountry}}However, his going to Kannauj, meeting the party outfit and holding a workers’ conference there triggered fresh conjectures. —The constituency goes to polls in the fourth phase on May 13.
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