LUCKNOW: The battle for Kannauj, a former Samajwadi Party bastion, suddenly turned fiercer after SP chief Akhilesh Yadav entered the contest at the last moment, replacing his nephew Tej Pratap Yadav as the SP candidate.
When the SP had initially announced Tej Pratap Yadav as the candidate for Kannauj, the BJP immediately pounced on the regional party for promoting dynastic politics. But now with Akhilesh in the fray, the optics has changed making the contest no longer a cake walk for the sitting BJP MP Subrat Pathak, who had emerged a giant killer in 2019 by defeating Akhilesh’s wife Dimple Yadav.
Subrat himself admitted as much, saying he had thought it would be like an India-Nepal match when Tej Pratap was the opponent; but with Akhilesh’s entry, it has turned to an India-Pak match, which can go either way.
Kannauj is known as the ‘perfume capital of India’ and Subrat belongs to one of the oldest perfume business families. The constituency goes to polls in the fourth phase on May 13 in what promises to be a very closely fought contest.
Akhilesh chose to be a candidate from Kannauj after much flip-flop. According to sources, he finally decided to take the plunge to avenge the humiliating defeat of his wife in 2019 and reclaim the political legacy of his father late Mulayam Singh Yadav. His entry was dramatic, on the eve of the deadline for nomination, claiming ‘pressure from partymen’.
Kannauj Lok Sabha constituency was formed in 1967 and Ram Manohar Lohia was the first MP from the seat. In due course, Mulayam, who used to call himself a disciple of Lohia, established his party in this Muslim-Yadav dominated seat and gradually consolidated it into an SP bastion. Of the 16 elections since 1967, the SP has won seven times, and the Congress and BJP twice each.
Mulayam contested from Kannauj in 1999 and then left the seat to launch his son Akhilesh, who took the plunge in 2000 Kannauj by-poll.
However, the winning streak of SP’s first family was broken in 2019 when Subrat, a Brahmin, trounced Dimple by 12,000 votes. In the previous election in 2014, Dimple had won by a margin of 19,000 votes.
Before his 2019 win, Subrat had fought and lost two Lok Sabha polls from Kannauj. This time, he has a formidable opponent in Akhilesh. His supporters, however, claim the Yogi-Modi factor will help him.
On the other hand, things don’t look bright for Akhilesh either. In the absence of his father, the young SP leader has to work twice as much hard to gain voter trust.
