Kannauj Seat: Akhilesh Yadav Files Nomination Amid SP Flip-Flop

Lucknow: In a flip-flop, Samajwadi Party (SP) Chief Akhilesh Yadav submitted his nomination papers for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 from the Kannauj constituency in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, replacing Tej Pratap Yadav as candidate from the seat. 

The SP had announced that Akhilesh will his nomination on Thursday, last day for submitting nomination papers for the seat which will see voting in the fourth phase, on May 13. 

In Kannauj, a seat where SP faced defeat only once since 1998, seven sets of nomination papers were taken by Samajwadi Party leaders. Three sets were taken on Tuesday by Yash Dohrey, Shakeel Ahmed, and Bauan Tiwari, while four were taken on Wednesday. Notably, none of them was taken in the name of the party’s official nominee, Tej Pratap Yadav

On Wednesday evening, a post on the Samajwadi Party’s X handle confirmed that Akhilesh will be contesting from Kannauj. “National president Akhilesh Yadav will file his nomination papers from the Kannauj seat at 12 noon as Samajwadi Party candidate,” the SP’s X post said. 

The Kannauj seat hit the headlines after announcement of of Tej Pratap's candidature, who is a nephew of Akhilesh and son-in-law of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav. 

Kannauj Seat: Demographic Details

The Kannauj Lok Sabha seat includes five Assembly constituencies- Chhibramau, Tirwa, Kannauj, Bidhuna and Rasulabad.

Kannauj, a general seat and not reserved for SC/ST, has three main contenders- the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). 

The current SP candidate and former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav represented the seat three consecutive times- 2000, 2004 and 2009. 

Kannauj Election: 2019 Winner

During the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP won the Kannauj seat for the first time with a margin of nearly 12,000 votes. BJP candidate Subrat Pathak was polled nearly 5.50 lakh votes, holding vote share of around 50 per cent. 

His win came as a defeat for Akhilesh Yadav's wife and SP candidate Dimple Yadav who was polled 5,50,734 votes (48.27%). The total number of valid votes polled was 11,40,496.

According to the Election Commission, there were 18,74,824 voters in the Kannauj constituency during the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections. The gender ration stood with 10,25,930 male voters and 8,48,829 female. 65 voters declared themselves as third gender.