"I Would Like To Contest From Kannauj In 2019 General Elections": Akhilesh Yadav

New Delhi: As the Bhartiya Janta Party gets into battle mode in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 general elections with Amit Shah launching a programme to induct first time voters into the party in Varanasi on Saturday, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav today said he would like to contest 2019 general elections from Kannauj constituency. Kannauj is presently held by his wife Dimple Yadav who defeated the BJP candidate in 2014 by just 20,000 votes. "I would like to contest from Kannauj," he told Press Trust of India after paying tribute to veteran socialist leader Janeshwar Mishra on his death anniversary.

Kannauj will be a crucial test for the Samajwadi Party in the backdrop of 2017 assembly elections in UP when the party had lost two of the three seats in the Lok Sabha constituency to the BJP while it won the Kannauj city seat by a meagre 2,000 votes. To make matters worse, the Samajwadi Party lost all the three Nagar Palika chairman seats and all five Nagar Panchayat chairman seats to BJP in the recent civic polls held in November 2017.

Akhilesh Yadav has represented Kannauj thrice in the Lok Sabha before giving up the seat after becoming chief minister in 2012. Speaking about the current BJP regime in the Uttar Pradesh, the SP chief charged the Yogi Adityanath government with "failing" on all fronts. "There is no law and order in the state. The incident of dacoity in Kakori, on outskirts of Lucknow, has exposed the tall claims of the UP government on the law and order front," he said. "Kakori, which was once known for freedom fighters who gave their lives for the country, is now becoming a crime capital," he said. Four freedom fighters, Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan, Rajendra Lahiri and Thakur Roshan Singh, were hanged on December 19, 1927, for the Kakori conspiracy against the British.

Akhilesh Yadav accused the UP police of inflicting atrocities on the people and said only the Samajwadi ideology can fight for the people. "The BJP divides the society while Samajwadis unite," he said.

Replying to a question from reporters, Akhilesh Yadav said his father Mulayam Singh Yadav will contest the 2019 general elections from Mainpuri. In 2014, the Samajwadi Party patriarch had contested from Azamgarh and Mainpuri and won both, but chose to retain Azamgarh to strengthen the party in eastern Uttar Pradesh. He vacated Mainpuri, which was then won in a by-election by his grandson, Tej Pratap Yadav.

With inputs from agencies