Lok Sabha polls 2019: SP releases first list of 6 candidates; Mulayam to contest from Mainpuri

New Delhi, Mar 08: The Samajwadi Party has released its first list of candidates for Lok Sabha elections 2019. The first name on the list is of party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav who will contest from Mainpuri seat.

Mulayam Singh Yadav will contest from Mainpuri, Dharmendra Yadav will fight from Badaun. Dharmendra Yadav will contest again from the seat that he has won thrice. The other cousin of Akhilesh and uncle Ram Gopal Yadav's son Akshay will contest from Firozabad.

At present, the SP patriarch represents Azamgarh constituency. He had represented Mainpuri three times earlier - in 1996, 2004 and 2009.

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— Samajwadi Party (@samajwadiparty) March 8, 2019

In the 2014 polls, Mulayam contested from two constituencies - Azamgarh and Mainpuri - and won both. While his victory margin in the former was only 63,204, he secured a whopping lead of 3.64 lakh in the latter. In 2009 too, the SP patriarch won the Mainpuri seat by a margin of over 1.6 lakh votes.

Samajwadi Party's decision to release its first list comes after the Congress released its first list for Lok Sabha polls 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. The first list of six candidates of the Samajwadi Party (/search?query=Samajwadi Party) also includes Kamlesh Katheria

Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav in multiple interviews repeatedly stressed that opposition unity was in tact and that the Congress continued to be part of their (SP-BSP) alliance with an allotment of two seats. However, this statement seemed contrary to Congress' designs in Uttar Pradesh after the party released its first Lok Sabha candidates on Thurday.