Akhilesh Yadav confirms contesting in UP elections; will take Azamgarh's 'permission'

Taking a U-turn, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday confirmed that he would be contesting the UP elections. Addressing the media, Yadav said that he would be contesting from wherever the party asks him to contest, adding that it may very well be his bastion Azamgarh.

'I will have to take the permission of the people of Azamgarh,' Yadav said, speaking about the constituency from where he is presently a Member of the Parliament. Republic learnt from SP sources that he may contest polls from Azamgarh's Gopalpur constituency.

BJP's Yogi Adityanath throws an open challenge

Yadav' decision comes days after the Bharatiya Janata Party put out an open challenge for him along with BSP's Mayawati and Congress' Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to reveal the constituencies they were fighting from in the UP elections. 

Reiterating that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be fighting from Gorakhpur, the party through a graphic stated, "After 18 years, a Chief Minister is fighting elections. The Chief Ministers of SP-BSP because of fear and superstition did not even visit Noida, let alone fight the elections. For them, their clan is Uttar Pradesh, and for us, Uttar Pradesh is our clan." 

UP elections

Elections in UP will be conducted in 7 phases. While the first phase of the Election will be held on February 10, voting for the second, third, fourth and fifth phases will take place on February 10, 14, 20 23, and 27 respectively. The sixth phase will see voting on March 3 while the voting for the seventh phase will be held on March 7. The counting of votes for all the phases will take place on March 10.  

BJP has announced that it will fight along with allies Nishad Party and  Apna Dal (S) under the leadership of CM Yogi Adityanath. On the other hand, SP has refused to ally with big parties like Congress or BSP, opting to ally with smaller parties like  Mahan Dal, NCP, SBSP, RLD, PSPL and has kept his doors open for AIMIM, AAP. BSP chief Mayawati has already announced that her party will fight polls alone in UP and Uttarakhand while allying only with Akali Dal in Punjab. Congress has aggressively campaigned under the leadership of Priyanka Gandhi in the state, eyeing its solo return. AIMIM has announced it will contest on 100 seats. 

As per the Republic-P MARQ opinion polI, in spite of SP, BSP, Congress trying their best, as per the predictions, BJP is all set for a clean sweep in Uttar Pradesh. BJP+ is likely to retain power with the party projected to win 252-272 seats in the 403-member Assembly. On the other hand, SP+ is looking to bag 111-131 seats. Other parties are likely to have small gains. BSP is likely to bag 8 - 16, Congress 3-9 and others 0-4 seats.

Image: PTI