Akhilesh Yadav kick starts campaigning for UP elections

Lucknow: After joining hands with Congress in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in his new role as the Samajwadi Party national president is all set to kick off his party's election campaign starting Tuesday from Sultanpur. This will be the Chief Minister's first election rally in the state after he was coroneted as the head of the ruling party, replacing father Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has been made the Samajwadi Party patron. Five constituencies in Sultanpur district will go to polls in the fifth phase on February 27. Akhilesh earlier on Sunday released the "please all" Samajwadi Party manifesto with focus on women and youth empowerment and has been busy finalising list of candidates after forging an alliance with Congress "to keep communal forces at bay". The poll process in Uttar Pradesh begins on February 11. 73 constituencies in western Uttar Pradesh will go polls in this phase. The filing of nominations for these constituencies will end on January 24. Uttar Pradesh is set to have seven-phase polling between February 11 and March 8. Akhilesh has lined up a total of fourteen rallies with Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi ahead of the forthcoming elections. The Bhartiya Janta party has been recently seen taking a lot of digs at Congress and SP alliance and especially Rahul Gandhi. Taking a swipe at Rahul Gandhi over Congress-SP alliance for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, the BJP today said the Congress vice-president needed such a tie-up to save his political career. "..this shows that Rahul Gandhi needs Akhilesh's cycle carrier to save his political career, while junior Yadav (UP CM Akhilesh Yadav) knows that his misrule of five years will haunt him in these elections," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told reporters here.