The Samajwadi Party has released its first candidate list for upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The first name on the list is of party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav who will be contesting elections from Mainpuri seat in Uttar Pradesh.
Currently, Mulayam Singh Yadav is a member of Azamgarh constituency. He had represented Mainpuri three times earlier — in 1996, 2004 and 2009. In the 2014 polls, Mulayam contested from two constituencies — Azamgarh and Mainpuri — and won both.
The party's first list, released on Friday morning, has declared candidates for 6 Lok Sabha seats in UP. The seats are Mainpuri, Badaun, Firozabad, Etawah (reserved), Robertsganj (reserved), and Bahraich (reserved). The list was released from the party's New Delhi office.
Mulayam Singh Yadav's nephew Dharmendra Yadav will fight from Badaun, the seat that he has won thrice, and his brother and senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav's son Akshay Yadav will contest from Firozabad. However, Akhilesh's name was not on the first list. The list was signed by SP national chief general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav.
Kamlesh Katheria will contest from Yadav family's home turf Etawah reserved seat, Bhailal Kol has been fielded on Robertsganj reserved seat, and Shabbir Balmiki will contest from Bahraich reserved seat.
Samajwadi Party's decision to release its first list comes a day after the Congress released its first list for Lok Sabha elections on Thursday that included contenders for 11 seats in UP, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi from their respective constituencies of Rae Bareli and Amethi. Both SP-BSP has left Amethi and Rae Bareli for the Congress. The SP had announced a pre-poll alliance with former rival BSP in UP where the BSP has announced to contest on 38 seats while the SP will fight on 37 seats.
