Akhilesh fielded in dad's Azamgarh, Mulayam in 'safe seat' Mainpuri

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav will contest from Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, which was represented by his father Mulayam Singh Yadav. The 79-year-old SP patriarch will contest from "safe seat" Mainpuri this time. At present, the SP patriarch represents Azamgarh. He had represented Mainpuri three times earlier in 1996, 2004 and 2009. The party has declared Akhilesh's wife Dimple Yadav its candidate from Kannauj.

The Samajwadi Party also announced that senior leader Mohd Azam Khan will contest from Rampur. In the 2014 polls, Mulayam contested from two constituencies, Azamgarh and Mainpuri, and won both. The SP has so far announced the names of 20 candidates, 19 in Uttar Pradesh and one Madhya Pradesh. Prominent candidates are Akhilesh Yadav's cousins Dharmendra Yadav, the son of Ram Gopal Yadav, and Akshay Yadav. While Dharmendra Yadav will fight from Badaun, Akshay Yadav will contest from Firozabad.

Meanwhile, the Congress on Sunday released its ninth list of 10 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, fielding former finance minister P Chidambaram's son Karti from Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu. Karti Chidambaram is facing trial in corruption cases, including the INX media money laundering case. A Delhi court has extended till March 25 the interim protection to Karti from his arrest as well as that of former Union minister P Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis scam cases filed by the CBI and ED.

The Congress list contains four candidates from Maharashtra, three from Bihar and one each in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir. Former NCP leader Tariq Anwar was nominated by the party for the Katihar Lok Sabha seat in Bihar, which he currently represents.

The party also fielded its former general secretary B K Hariprasad from the Bangalore South constituency in Karnataka. The others whose names have been cleared by the party's central election committee include Mohammed Javed from Kishanganj and Uday Singh alias Pappu Singh from Purnia in Bihar and Haji Farooq Mir from Baramulla in J&K. The party has fielded Hidayat Patel from Akola, Kishor Uttamrao Gajbhiye from Ramtek-SC and Subhash Wankhede from Hingoli in Maharashtra.