Akhilesh Yadav is fast emerging as a serious challenge for the BJP in the 2022 UP election
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav told NDTV Friday that he remained open to contesting the 2022 UP Assembly election - after having told news agency PTI last month that he would not.
Mr Yadav - whose 'rainbow' alliance of regional parties is emerging as a serious challenge to the BJP's re-election hopes - said a decision on him standing for election would be taken by his party.
"If the party wants, I will contest the election. I had said earlier too that if the party decides, I will contest the election in 2022," Mr Yadav told NDTV during the final stage of his Samajwadi Vijay yatra.
"I am currently a Lok Sabha MP from Azamgarh... I will decide after asking the people there."
Mr Yadav said the same thing to NDTV last month as well; that he would contest the election "if the party wants". This was two weeks after he told PTI: "I will not be contesting the election myself."
Akhilesh Yadav - who led the Samajwadi Party to a famous win in 2012, winning 224 of 403 seats - held a rally in UP's Rae Bareli - the last remaining Congress stronghold in the state - today.
Speaking to NDTV, Mr Yadav thanked the UP people for their enthusiasm and slammed the BJP for having made false promises to the voters.
"The enthusiasm that people are showing towards us... it seems they want to change. Whatever promises the BJP made to the public have turned out to be false. False promises were made regarding jobs and employment... the public wants a change," he said.
He repeated his jibes from this week, when he said the BJP wore "religious spectacles" for elections.
Akhilesh Yadav is a four-time MP but has never contested a state election (File)
Meanwhile, Friday was a big day in poll-bound UP, with Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also on the campaign trail. The BJP heavyweights were in Lucknow to support their regional ally - the Nishad Party, which has been with the BJP-led NDA since 2019.
"The (past) governments here... Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party... they only worked for their castes and did nothing for the Nishad community or any other OBC community. Only Modiji has worked for all backward castes," Amit Shah intoned.
The Nishad Party has pockets of influence in eastern UP particularly among riverine communities like Nishads and Mallahs. These, and 15 others, make up more than 10 per cent of the state's population.
Previous governments - including that of Akhilesh Yadav's and even his father Mulayam Singh Yadav's - tried to move them to the Scheduled Castes list but failed for various reasons.
Mr Shah, batting hard for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, claimed that for years, the Nishads had demanded a separate fisheries ministry, which was fulfilled by only the Prime Minister.
Uttar Pradesh votes for a new government next year, and polls in the country's most populous state are widely seen as a bellwether for the 2024 election.
With input from PTI