Akhilesh to contest from family bastion of Mainpuri

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav would be contesting the forthcoming assembly polls from Karhal seat in the family bastion of Mainpuri.

According to the sources in the SP, Akhilesh's decision to contest from Karhal came after hundreds of party workers and leaders from the constituency wrote to him to choose the seat.

Karhal, which was barely a few kilometres away from Akhilesh's native village of Saifai, has been an SP stronghold and the party had won the seat in the past three assembly polls in 2007, 2012 and 2017. BJP had won the seat in 2002.

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The constituency has a sizable presence of Yadav voters, a traditional vote bank of the SP.

It would be Akhilesh's first plunge in the state's electoral battlefield. Akhilesh had taken the legislative council route and had resigned from the Kannauj LS seat when he became the chief minister of the state after 2012 assembly polls. His wife Dimple Yadav was later elected unopposed from Kannauj seat.

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