Akhilesh Yadav, leader of the Samajwadi Party, will run for Lok Sabha elections in Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh.

Akhilesh Yadav, the former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and the leader of the Samajwadi Party, is set to file his candidacy papers tomorrow at noon. He previously represented the Azamgarh seat in 2019 but resigned after being elected to the UP Assembly from Karhal in 2022. There is speculation that he will make a comeback to the Lok Sabha battlefield, a decision that was reportedly confirmed earlier by the SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav. Akhilesh Yadav’s return to the Lok Sabha would mean that SP leader Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, who was named as the candidate for the upcoming election, will not contest.

Tej Pratap Yadav is Akhilesh Yadav’s nephew and previously won the Mainpuri seat in the 2014 election. He had initially decided against contesting in this election in order to plan the overall strategy. Kannauj, a stronghold of the Samajwadi Party, was won by the BJP’s Subrat Pathak in 2019. The seat was previously held by Akhilesh Yadav’s wife, who later contested and won the Mainpuri seat in a bypoll in 2022.

The Samajwadi Party is contesting 63 out of Uttar Pradesh’s 80 Lok Sabha seats, while the remaining 17 have been allotted to the Congress. Among the constituencies yet to have candidates named are Raebareli and Amethi, with speculation surrounding the potential candidacy of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and the potential return of Rahul Gandhi for a third match-up with the BJP’s Smriti Irani. Kannauj is scheduled to vote in the fourth phase of the 2024 election on May 13, with results for all seven phases set to be declared on June 4.