UP Election 2022: Akhilesh Yadav To Contest Polls From Father Mulayam's Bastion

Akhilesh Yadav is Lok Sabha MP from Azamgarh constituency. The SP chief has never contested a state election.

Samajwadi Party Chief and former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. (PTI Image)

New Delhi: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will contest the 2022 Assembly Polls from Karhal constituency in Mainpuri district, party's national spokesperson Ashutosh Verma said on Thursday.

Mainpuri is said to be a stronghold of Akhilesh's father Mulayam Singh Yadav. Karhal seat is currently held by SP MLA Sobaran Yadav.

The announces comes weeks ahead of the first phase of polling for Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled to take place on February 10.

Currently, Akhilesh Yadav is Lok Sabha MP from Azamgarh constituency. The SP chief has never contested a state election. In 2012, he became the Chief Minister of the populous state taking the Legislative Council route.

Karhal has been a stronghold for Samajwadi candidates in every election since 1993, except for five years between 2002 and 2007, when it went to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The announcement comes a day after UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya took a swipe at Akhilesh saying that the SP chief, who has been trying to put his sticker on the work done by the BJP government, is scared of contesting polls.

Maurya further said that BJP in its very first list had announced that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will fight from saffron party's stronghold Gorakhpur Urban, but Akhilesh is scared of contesting Assembly elections.

It will be an interesting political battle as even UP CM Yogi Adityanath is contesting his first Assembly election. Adityanath was Gorakhpur MP when chosen for CM post in 2017. Adityanath then resigned as MP and was elected as an MLC.