Akhilesh to make poll debut from Karhal

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will contest the Uttar Pradesh election from the Karhal constituency in Mainpuri district, his first assembly poll as a candidate. "The party president will contest from Karhal seat of Mainpuri," SP national spokesperson Ashutosh Verma told PTI Thursday. Yadav, who is an MP from Azamgarh seat, had said on Wednesday that he would decide on contesting the Uttar Pradesh polls after talking to the people of his parliamentary constituency.

The Samajwadi Party's Mainpuri district unit Thursday gave a written request to the party chief to contest from the Karhal seat and he agreed, sources said. Mainpuri has traditionally been a Samajwadi Party stronghold. SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav represents the Mainpuri constituency in parliament. In 2017 assembly polls, SP candidate Sobran Yadav had secured 1.04 lakh votes from Karhal, defeating the BJP's Prem Shakya by 38,405 votes. Reacting to the development, the BJP said it's a "misconception" of the SP chief that Mainpuri is a "safe seat" for him. "And we will clear it," BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said.