Manipuri residents want Akhilesh to contest from city

Agra: Amid buzz that former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will contest the UP assembly elections 2022, residents of Mainpuri are expecting him to contest from the district, which is the party's stronghold and karam bhoomi (work field) of patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.

A delegation of party leaders from the district has gone to Lucknow to meet Akhilesh Yadav with a request to contest elections from Mainpuri’s Karhal or Sadar constituency.

Confirming the same, the district president of the party, Devendra Yadav, said that not only party workers but Mainpuri residents also want him to contest elections from Mainpuri. “Our delegation has gone to meet the party chief today,” he said.

He said Mulayam Singh Yadav started his political career from the district after impressing his political guru and former MLA from Praja Socialist Party, Nathu Singh Yadav, in wrestling.

Though Mulayam Singh studied in Karhal and was later posted as a lecturer there, did not contest elections from the city. He is currently an MP from Mainpuri.

Akhilesh has never contested in a state election— not in 2012 or 2017. In 2012, when he became the youngest chief minister of the state, he took the route of the Legislative Council.

The murmur of Akhilesh Yadav contesting election started with the war of words between BJP and SP recently, after the BJP announced that Yogi Adityanath will contest from his stronghold Gorakhpur.