16 people including Dimple Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav with first phase candidate announcement; SP reserves 11 seats for Congress

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party has released the first list of candidates for Lok Sabha elections. Party National President Akhilesh Yadav announced the candidates for 16 Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh.

Akhilesh's wife Dimple Yadav will contest from Mainpuri, the sitting constituency. Mainpuri is the stronghold of the Yadav family. Mulayam Singh Yadav won from here in 2019. After his death, his daughter-in-law Dimple won the by-election in 2022 defeating Raghuraj Singh Shakya of the BJP by a margin of 2,88,461 votes.

In the 2019 general elections, Mulayam Singh Yadav's majority was 94,389 votes. Shafiqur Rahman Barq will contest from Sambhal, while former minister Ravidas Mehrotra will contest from capital Lucknow. Mehrotra is currently the sitting MLA from Lucknow Central constituency. Akshay Yadav will be contesting from Firozabad constituency.

The other day Akhilesh Yadav had said that 11 seats have been set aside for the INDIA front ally Congress. Akhilesh announced that he is giving the seat to Congress after Nitish Kumar left the front to join the NDA in Bihar and Mamata said her party would contest alone in Bengal.

Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also announced that the Aam Aadmi Party will contest alone in Punjab. Meanwhile, out of the announced list of 16 people, SP has considered 11 people from the OBC category, one each from the Muslim and Dalit categories and the Thakur category.