Samajwadi Party Keeps Last-Minute Suspense Over Kannauj Candidate: Akhilesh Yadav Says, "You Will Know When Nomination Happens"

Samajwadi Party (SP) has been following a trend of changing candidates on the last day of nomination filing in these elections. This happened in Rampur, Moradabad and Meerut.

Keeping up with this trend, when SP national president Akhilesh Yadav was asked about his Kannauj candidature, he said, "When nomination happens then you will come to know."

The SP had earlier declared Tej Pratap Singh Yadav as its candidate from Kannauj. Tej Pratap is the grandson of late SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav's brother Ranveer Singh.

However, he hasn't filed his nomination yet, while the last day of nomination filing for phase 4, under which the polling will be held in Kannauj, is tomorrow (25 April).

SP sources say that Akhilesh Yadav might file his nomination from Kannauj tomorrow. Moreover, the speculation was confirmed by party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav.

Akhilesh Yadav said that while it's a possibility that the information on candidate will be out before nomination, he asserted that the question is of Kannauj's historic victory.

Akhilesh Yadav had earlier represented Kannauj from 2000 to 2012. He then left this seat to become Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister in 2012 and passed on the baton to his wife Dimple Yadav.

While Dimple represented the seat from 2012 to 2019, she lost the 2019 elections from here against Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Subrat Pathak, who is the BJP candidate this time also.

Meanwhile, Dimple Yadav is contesting from Manipuri, a seat she won in the 2022 by-polls, which was vacated by the demise of her father-in-law Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Reacting to this development, the BJP candidate Pathak took a jibe at Akhilesh Yadav on changing candidates again and again and asserted that no other than Akhilesh in SP is capable of contesting from Kannauj.

Pathak urged Akhilesh to contest so that there will be an interesting contest, otherwise SP candidate's security deposit will be confiscated as SP cadre will support him in Akhilesh's absence, he claimed.

Notably, on other seats also, like Gautam Buddha Nagar and Budaun, the SP has changed candidates. The polling in Kannauj is scheduled for 13 May and results will be declared on 4 June.