Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who is contesting today from the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat, says he is secure in the support of Dalits, that came to the party when it had tied up with Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party in 2019. In contrast, the BJP, he implied, despises the so-called lower castes.
"When I went to a temple, the BJP got it washed," he said, referring to the BJP workers' purification ceremony at the Gauri Shankar Mahadev Mandir of Kannauj after his visit. A video of the purification ceremony was widely circulated in social media and the incident had provided boost to the SP efforts to weave a rainbow support group of voters at the constituency.
"Today, the fight is big. Today, the BJP wants to change the Constitution which taught us how to live... They will do so if they get 400 seats," Mr Yadav said, underscoring what has become the Opposition's biggest allegation.
Mr Yadav has returned to Kannauj to reclaim an old family bastion -- his father Mulayam Singh Yadav had nurtured the constituency for years. But the seat went to the BJP in 2019 and sitting MP and perfume trader Subrat Pathak is out to defend it. The battle is seen as the centrepiece of today's election in Uttar Pradesh as voting is being held on nine other seats.
The fight will be triangular with the BSP fielding Imran Bin Zafar.
"Kannauj parliamentary constituency has taught me the ABCD of politics... I grew in politics in Kannauj," Mr Yadav said today, referring to his political debut from the seat in 2000.
The fight for Kannauj will be the first Lok Sabha battle for the SP chief in a long time. In 2022, he had resigned his Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat and retained the assembly seat from Karhal.
Mr Pathak has been a repeat contestant from the seat since 2009 and ended the SP's 35-year dream run at the constituency after a decade in 2019. His opponent was Dimple Yadav, the wife of the SP chief.
Reminding voters of the old times, Mr Yadav said, "People of Kannauj know how much development took place when Samajwadi Party was in power and why development is not happening here today… We gave world class infrastructure to Kannauj, built the world's best roads... built a market".
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