Battleline drawn in Karhal: Akhilesh vs BJP's Union Min SP Singh Baghel

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav will face Union Minister SP Singh Baghel on Karhal seat of Mainpuri where both of them filed nominations on Monday.

Shortly after Akhilesh Yadav filed his nomination, Baghel too followed suit as a BJP candidate, ending speculation about Aparna Yadav challenging the SP president on this high-profile seat.

Asked recently about chances of her challenging his brother-in-law Akhilesh Yadav on this seat, SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav had said she would follow the party's directions and that led to the speculation.

After filing his nomination papers, the SP chief said the UP assembly elections will write the country's history for the next century and appealed to people to defeat the negative politics. Yadav said his "mission" is to do positive politics with progressive thinking. The Karhal assembly seat is part of the Mainpuri parliamentary constituency represented by SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. Karhal will go to the polls on February 20 in the third of the seven-phase elections in the state.

Shortly after Akhilesh Yadav filed his nomination, Union minister SP Singh Baghel also reached the Mainpuri collectorate and filed his nomination papers to take on the Samajwadi party chief on the high-profile seat. Baghel who is the Lok Sabha MP from Agra (SC) constituency, is the Union minister of state for Law and Justice.

Sixty-one-year-old Baghel is also an associate professor in military science.