With the first phase of Lok Sabha elections 2019 just a few days away, political parties are busy announcing candidates for the polls so they can start campaigning on the ground.
The Samajwadi Party on Sunday released a new list of candidates for upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will contest from Azamgarh, the Lok Sabha seat which was previously held by his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, while former Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan will contest from the Rampur Lok Sabha seat. Earlier, the party had released the names of 17 candidates.
Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav will contest from Mainpuri while Dharmendra Yadav and Akshay Yadav will contest from Badaun and Firozabad Lok Sabha seats respectively. In 2014, the Azamgarh seat was retained to Mulayam Singh Yadav. The party has so far announced the names of candidates in Kairana, Sambhal, Ghaziabad, Hathras (SC), Mainpuri, Firozabad, Badaun, Kheri, Hardoi (SC), Etawah, Kannauj, Banda, Barabanki, Bahraich, Gonda, Mirzapur, Robertsganj.
The party has also released a list of star campaigners which included Akhilesh Yadav, Dimple Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav, Azam Khan, Jaya Bachchan, Rajendra Chowdhury, Ram Govind Chowdhury, Ahmed Hassan, Javed Ali Khan, Vishambar Prasad Nishad, Surendra Nagar, Tej Pratap Yadav, Naresh Patel, Maulana Yasin Ali Usmani, Manoj Paras, Mehboob Ali, Sahid Manjoor, Kamal Akhtar, Dayaram Prajapati, Sarfaraj Khan, Sanjay Garg, Kiran Pal Kashyap, Pervez Ali, Jitendra Yadav and others.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav's name has been left out of the party's star campaigners list.