UP election: Akhilesh begins campaign from Sultanpur after winning SP feud
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav will lead the Samajwadi Party campaign this elections as the party’s national president, after winning a power tussle in the Yadav clan.
Donning the new hat of the Samajwadi Party’s national president, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav will kick off his party’s election campaign with a Sultanpur rally on Tuesday.
Enthused after his victory in the Yadav power game, Akhilesh will take to the air from Lucknow’s La Martiniere ground for Sultanpur to kick start his campaign. SP has this time hired three choppers for movement of its star campaigners -- party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and urban development minister Azam Khan, besides the CM.
During the 2012 elections, the SP trio made around 110 sorties, compared to 450 sorties of Congress and 250 of the BJP star campaigners.
In 2012 Vidhan Sabha polls, the Congress used maximum private jets, since it had a government in centre and large number of leaders were under Special Protection Group (SPG) cover. In 2012, the party used more than 450 sorties for its star campaigners.
There’s been a lot of talk over why Akhilesh Yadav is starting his campaign from Sultanpur, five constituencies of which go to polls in the fifth phase on February 27, and why not from other places which go to polls in the first or second phase.
SP spokesperson Rajendra Choudhury said Akhilesh will address another rally in Lakhimpur on January 25, and added that detailed tour programmes of the CM would be announced very soon.
After releasing a “please all” party manifesto on Sunday focussing on women and youth empowerment, Akhilesh has been busy finalising candidates after forging an alliance with Congress “to keep communal forces at bay”.
(With inputs from PTI)