Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will contest his first-ever assembly elections from Karhal constituency in Uttar Pradesh, announced the party on Thursday. The assembly constituency is a stronghold of the Samajwadi Party, and is under Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency known to be ‘Neta ji’ Mulayam Singh Yadav’s turf.
Akhilesh is an MP from Azamgarh seat. On Wednesday, he had said he will decide on contesting the polls after talking to the people of his constituency. “The party president will contest from Karhal seat of Mainpuri,” said party spokesperson Ashutosh Verma.
Akhilesh had earlier said he will not contest the elections, but he seems to have changed his mind with this announcement. If reports are to believed, he changed his mind after the recent exit of two Yadav family members from the party and also after the BJP announced that chief minister Yogi Adityanath will be contesting from Gorakhpur.
Here is all you need to know about Karhal constituency from where Akhilesh will be contesting the upcoming polls:
1. This will be the first time Akhilesh contests assembly polls. The SP has chosen Karhal assembly constituency for him, as it falls under Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency of which his father Mulayam Singh Yadav is MP.
2. Karhal assembly seat contest will take place in the third phase of the UP assembly polls on February 20, while nominations for this seat are to begin from January 25.
3. The seat is considered a stronghold of the Samajwadi Party. It has been with the SP since 1993, with just one exception. In the 2002 elections, the seat went to the BJP.
4. The caste dynamics in the Karhal seat may be favourable for the SP as it has close to 1.5 lakh voters from the Yadav community considered traditional SP voters. The seat also has 14,000 Muslims and 34,000 Shakya community voters.
5. Karhal’s sitting MLA is Sobaran Singh Yadav, who was with the BJP when he won the seat in 2002. But since 2007, he has contested from the seat on an SP ticket.
Party sources said Tej Pratap, cousin to Akhilesh, could be given the responsibility of being incharge of the Karhal seat. The seat was finalised after Akhilesh met district chief Devendra Yadav, MLC Arvind Yadav and Karhal MLA Sobaran Singh Yadav at the SP headquarters in Lucknow.
(With PTI inputs)
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here.
.