Akhilesh Yadav's Karhal candidature is an SP attempt to reclaim Yadav belt from Firozabad to Kannauj

By contesting from Karhal Assembly seat in Mainpuri, the current and long-time Lok Sabha seat of his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav is trying to secure his party’s fortress of the Yadav belt where the BJP had made inroads. Karhal seat had been with the Samajwadi Party for three decades except once in 2002 when the BJP won it, and has a high population of Yadavs. The SP won it in 2017 with a margin of more than 38,000 votes despite the BJP wave in the state. The seat is just a 15-minute drive from Yadav family’s native village, Saifai. However, with Akhilesh’s candidature from here, the Samajwadi Party is trying to send a larger message in the entire Yadav belt from Firozabad to Kannauj to rally behind the party in these elections. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, despite an alliance with the BSP, the Samajwadi Party lost in Yadav-belt stronghold seats of Firozabad, Badaun, Etawah and Kannauj. The first two parliamentary seats were won by it in the 2014 general elections. In the 2017 Assembly elections, SP won just one out of five seats in Firozabad district, one out of six seats in Badaun, one out of three in Etawah district and one out of three in Kannauj district. The BJP managed to win one out of four seats in Mainpuri district too. The Samajwadi Party feels that with Akhilesh’s candidature from Karhal and the patch-up with Shivpal Singh Yadav, the party can reclaim its stronghold area from the BJP. However, the BJP is in no mood to let that happen. Akhilesh’s uncle Hari Om Yadav, the sitting MLA from Sirasganj in Firozabad which is the only seat the SP won in that district in 2017, has joined the BJP and will fight the seat on a BJP ticket. The ruling party has also put up former IPS officer and Dalit face, Asim Arun, from Kannauj, currently an SP seat. BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi points out that even in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat held by Mulayam Singh Yadav, the victory margin had come down to 94,000 votes in 2019 from more than 3.21 lakh votes in 2014 despite Mayawati being in alliance with the SP in 2019 and making a personal appeal to voters for Mulayam’s win. The BJP has not announced a candidate from Karhal against Akhilesh Yadav yet but BJP’s losing candidate from Mainpuri, Prem Singh Shakya, had given a good fight in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.