Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Samajwadi Party announces 16 candidates; Dimple Yadav for Mainpuri

Lok Sabha Elections 2024: The Samajwadi Party (SP) has announced its first list of 16 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in India this year.

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Lok Sabha Elections 2024: The Samajwadi Party has fielded several prominent leaders including Dimple Yadav, wife of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who will contest from Mainpuri.

Dimple Yadav won the Mainpuri parliamentary by-election in December 2022 by a huge margin of 2,88,461 votes against BJP candidate Raghuraj Singh Shakya. The SP considers Mainpuri as its bastion, earlier held by party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav until his death last October.

Other prominent SP candidates include Akshay Yadav from Firozabad, Shivshakar Singh Patel from Banda and 93-year-old Shafiqur Rahman Barq, one of the oldest parliamentarians, who has been fielded from Sambhal for the 5th time.

This time, the SP has allied with the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and offered 11 seats to the Congress as part of the united Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) to challenge the BJP.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said the alliance is off to a good start in Uttar Pradesh. "Our cordial alliance with the Congress is off to a good start with 11 strong seats. This winning equation and 'INDIA' team strategy will change history," he stated.

The SP manifesto promises to focus on backward classes, Dalits and minorities as part of its 'PDA' strategy. The party hopes to regain ground in Uttar Pradesh where the BJP had swept the polls in 2014 and 2019.