Akhilesh Yadav will contest Lok Sabha poll from Kannauj

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said here on Monday that he will contest the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Kannauj which is presently held by his wife Dimple Yadav, while his father Mulayam Singh Yadav will contest from Mainpuri.

Mr Yadav indicated that Dimple will not contest the Lok Sabha polls. Mr Yadav, after the Assembly elections last year, had said that Dimple may not contest any more elections.

“I want to contest the Kannauj seat from where I had been first elected as MP and the rest you can guess”, he said on Monday.

Mr Yadav was speaking at a function held here to mark the death anniversary of late Janeshwar Misra.

The SP president also mounted a scathing attack on the Yogi Adityanath government and said that the BJP government wanted to build a new India where dacoities are a way of life.

In an obvious reference to the recent spate of dacoities in Lucknow, Mr Yadav said that the Yogi Adityanath government was terming these as “routine” which was even more shocking.

“The BJP had targeted my government innumerable times on the issue of poor law and order but today, no one is talking when Uttar Pradesh is being hurtled towards a state of anarchy. Dacoities, earlier, used to take place in the ravines of Chambal but today, they are taking place in Lucknow. The government is silent on this issue and it seems that this is their new India”, he said.

Mr Yadav said that the Yogi government was blaming the previous regime for scams in expressway, river front and other projects but had not found any proof of its allegations.

Mr Akhilesh Yadav, incidentally, wished his estranged uncle Shivpal Yadav on the latter’s birthday on Monday.

As Mr Shivpal Yadav turned 63, hundreds of his followers turned up to wish their leader.

Mr Shivpal Yadav, while addressing his supporters at Lohia Trust, asked them to continue their fight against divisive forces.