Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Kannauj, the party announced on Wednesday. He had won the seat three times—2000, 2004 and 2009.
The announcement by SP comes two days after it declared another candidate, Tej Pratap Yadav, for the seat.
Tej Pratap is the grandson of Mulayam Singh Yadav's brother Ranveer.
Akhilesh Yadav will now file his papers on Thursday when nominations begin.
Earlier in the day, when reporters asked Akhilesh about his plans, he had said, "It will be clear before the nominations."
"Maybe you will get to know before nominations," he said, answering further questions.
According to media reports, the SP decided to change its candidate sensing discontent among party workers who wanted Akhilesh to contest from Kannauj.
When asked if party workers in Kannauj wanted him to contest from the seat, Yadav said, "The question here is of historic victory from the seat. The BJP will become history in this election as people have made up their mind for INDIA bloc. People are going to vote against the NDA.”
Kannauj was an SP stronghold until 2019 when BJP's Subrat Pathak emerged victorious by beating Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav, by a margin of more than 10,000 votes.
Voting on Kannauj seat will be held on May 13 in the fourth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
