2027-ലെ ഉത്തർപ്രദേശ് നിയമസഭാ തിരഞ്ഞെടുപ്പിൽ താൻ മത്സരിച്ചേക്കില്ലെന്ന് സമാജ്വാദി പാർട്ടി അധ്യക്ഷൻ അഖിലേഷ് യാദവ് വ്യക്തമാക്കി. 2012-ലെ പോലെ ലോക്സഭാംഗമായിരിക്കെ നേരിട്ട് മുഖ്യമന്ത്രിയായി സത്യപ്രതിജ്ഞ ചെയ്യാനാണ് സാധ്യതയെന്നും അദ്ദേഹം പറഞ്ഞു. വാരണാസി സന്ദർശനത്തിനിടെയാണ് തനിക്ക് ശുഭകരമായ കാര്യങ്ങൾ മാത്രമേ ചെയ്യൂ എന്ന് അഖിലേഷ് സൂചിപ്പിച്ചത്.
LUCKNOW Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday indicated that he might not contest the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, suggesting instead that he could take the oath as chief minister directly while serving as a Lok Sabha member -- repeating the precedent he set in 2012.
Speaking to media persons during a day-long visit to Varanasi, Yadav invoked notions of political auspiciousness to explain his strategy. 'You tell us the seat, I will contest in Varanasi... I always thought Kashi people were religious and know the difference between 'shubh' (auspicious) and 'ashubh' (inauspicious)," he said. "I became CM when I did not contest an Assembly election; that is why I will do whatever is 'shubh' for me. So, I will take the CM's oath directly from the Lok Sabha."
The remark came against the backdrop of his current status as Member of Parliament from Kannauj.
In the 2012 Assembly polls, Yadav did not contest any seat. He was then a sitting Lok Sabha MP from Kannauj. After the SP won 224 seats, he was chosen as chief minister and sworn in on March 15, 2012, at the age of 38, later becoming an MLC. In 2017, he again did not contest the Assembly polls while leading the SP-Congress campaign that ended in defeat.
In 2022, he contested and won the Karhal seat in Mainpuri by a margin of over 67,000 votes, resigning his Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat to become Leader of the Opposition. He returned to the Lok Sabha from Kannauj in 2024.
The SP president thanked Varanasi voters for ensuring the victory of SP candidates Lal Bihari Yadav and Ashutosh Sinha in the teacher and graduate constituencies, describing it as "double blessings from Baba Vishwanath" and a "double zero" for the "double engine" government. "We will eat the launglata (sweet) of Varanasi soon," he quipped.
On the political front, Yadav launched a scathing attack against the BJP, calling it "anarchy itself' and accusing it of vote theft, electoral malpractice and anti-constitutional behaviour. He alleged the party had cheated Varanasi's people for 10 years by looting Ganga cleaning funds, neglecting weavers and boatmen, leasing the city to outsiders and running bulldozers over traders' shops in Dalmandi and the historic Manikarnika Ghat. He also criticised the non-revision of circle rates, which he claimed, denied farmers market rate compensation, while assuring that an SP government would protect their interests without opposing development.
He also claimed that after the MLC poll results, around 200 sitting BJP MLAs, including ministers, could be denied tickets.
Reiterating that seat-sharing with allies would be based on winnability rather than numbers, Yadav predicted that the people of Uttar Pradesh would remove the BJP government in 2027.