UP Election 2022: Congress decides to field no candidate against SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Shivpal Yadav

The Congress party has not fielded a candidate to run against Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Yadav in the Karhal and Jaswant Nagar assembly seats, where the nomination deadline ended on Tuesday. According to a spokesperson for the Congress Party, the party nominated no candidates against the two as a reciprocal gesture to the SP, which had fielded no candidates in the Rae Bareilly and Amethi Lok Sabha constituencies against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the 2019 general elections. 

Malkhan Singh, president of the Congress' Etawah district unit, claimed the local unit had given a list of six people for the Jaswant Nagar seat, but the party's high headquarters had not approved any of them. Prakash Pradhan, general secretary of the UP Congress, claimed the party's senior leadership had decided that because SP founder Mulayam Singh would not run a candidate against their leaders, the party would not run anyone against Akhilesh Yadav in Karhal. 

The Congress party had previously announced Gyanwati Yadav as their candidate for the Karhal assembly seat. And as soon as Akhilesh Yadav filed his nomination, the party decided to withdraw her candidacy. Akhilesh Yadav is running in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections for the first time from Karhal, which falls inside his father, Mulayam Singh Yadav's Lok Sabha seat of Mainpuri. Shivpal Singh Yadav is running for Jaswant Nagar for the sixth time.

Both seats will be contested in the third phase of the seven-phase UP assembly elections on February 20. Meanwhile, the Congress Party has released a list of prominent campaigners for the second round of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, which will take place on February 14. Among the 30 leaders of Congress campaigners were Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and Sachin Pilot. Elections in Uttar Pradesh's 403 seats will be held in seven stages from February 10 to March 7. On March 10, all votes will be counted in all states.

Also Read | UP Election 2022: Voters upset with this new trend of seeking votes, fed up with candidate’s campaigning

Also Read | UP Election 2022: SP releases list of 10 candidates; six Lucknow seats contestants declared

• Akhilesh Yadav
• Congress
• Shivpal Yadav
• UP Election 2022
• Mulayam Singh Yadav
• Samajwadi Party