Lok Sabha polls: Akhilesh to contest from Azamgarh, Mulayam’s name not in list of SP star campaigners

The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Sunday announced that its chief Akhilesh Yadav will contest the coming Lok Sabha polls from the Azamgarh parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

In the 2014 elections, SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav had won the Mainpuri and Azamgarh parliamentary constituencies. Azamgarh is considered a strong belt of the party.

Besides Akhilesh Yadav, the party also fielded former state minister Azam Khan from Rampur.

So far, the SP has announced 19 candidates for the general elections.

The SP, which won five seats in the 2014 elections, has announced to contest the 2019 elections in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).

The SP will contest on 37, the BSP on 38 and the RLD on three out of the 80 seats in the state.

The Samajwadi Party Sunday released its list of 40 star campaigners in which there was no mention of party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The list was released by senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav.

It carried the names of party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Azam Khan, Dimple Yadav and Jaya Bachchan among others, besides Ram Gopal Yadav himself.

The Samajwadi Party has fielded Mulayam Singh Yadav from Mainpuri which is described as its "safest" seat.

At present, the SP patriarch represents Azamgarh constituency. He had represented Mainpuri three times earlier in 1996, 2004 and 2009.

In the 2014 polls, Mulayam Singh Yadav contested from two constituencies, Azamgarh and Mainpuri, and won both.

The seven phased Lok Sabha elections are scheduled from April 11 to May 19. Counting of votes will take place on May 23.

(With PTI and IANS inputs)