UP Polls: SP Chief Akhilesh To Contest In UP Election

Earlier, Mr. Yadav denied contesting in elections

New Delhi: After the much dilly-dallying, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has decided to contest the Uttar Pradesh election, sources said today. He had earlier said he would not contest the polls and would prefer to focus on every seat in the state.

As per the sources said, Akhilesh Yadav is the Lok Sabha MP from Azamgarh in eastern Uttar Pradesh and has never contested a state election. His seat has not been decided yet.

Adding more specifications, the source said that the pressure was on the Samajwadi Party chief and former Chief Minister after the BJP's Yogi Adityanath, the incumbent Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, decided to contest the state polls for the first time.

Last week, ahead of the UP Polls, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath declares to contest from Gorakhpur Sadar in eastern UP and the BJP assesses big gains in this region by fielding the priest-politician, who is the head of the influential Gorakhpur Mutt.

Reports of Akhilesh Yadav contesting the election come a day his sister-in-law Aparna Yadav is tipped to join the BJP in Delhi, going in the opposite direction after several key backward caste leaders from the BJP switched to the Samajwadi Party recently.

Recently in November 2021, SP Chief declared not to contest in the upcoming Assembly elections. But his party rushed to clarify that such a decision had yet to be taken by the party.

"I will not be contesting the assembly election myself," the Samajwadi MP had been quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

In 2012, when he led the Samajwadi Party to a big victory in UP, he took over as the country's youngest Chief Minister at 38. He was a Lok Sabha MP from Kannauj at the time.