(ET)
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav may contest the 2019 general election from Kannauj, the seat held by his wife Dimple Yadav, amid the BJP’s plans to aggressively target all five Lok Sabha seats held by the party it dislodged from power in the state polls last year. Yadav had announced last month that his wife would not contest the next general election, a move aimed at quelling allegations of promoting “dynasty” in the party.
A senior SP functionary said that Yadav, the party’s national president, will “in all probability” contest from Kannauj in 2019 to retain the family bastion and enter the Lok Sabha. “This will be a shot in the arm for the party after the loss in 2017 polls and help it make a mark in the Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh,” the party functionary told ET, speaking on condition of anonymity.
