"Sab aayenge ab toh...": Akhilesh Yadav's big hint on Rahul Gandhi's LS candidature from Amethi

Replying to the question "Now that you have come to Kannauj, is your friend (Rahul Gandhi) going to come (contest) to Amethi", Akhilesh Yadav said, "Sab aayenge ab toh (Everyone will come now), mehfil toh ab UP mein hi sajegi (The gathering will be in Uttar Pradesh only)."

Akhilesh Yadav was in Kannauj where he filed his nomination for the Lok Sabha polls. Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha MP Ramgopal Yadav accompanied Akhilesh while he was filing his nomination.

Akhilesh Yadav was elected to the 13th Lok Sabha from Kannauj in a by-election in 2000. He was then re-elected twice from the same constituency in 2004 and 2009. He took over as UP CM in 2012 and returned to the Lok Sabha in 2019 as an MP from Azamgarh. In 2022 he resigned from the LS to be a part of the UP Assembly.

Voting on the Kannauj seat will be held in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha election on May 13.

Earlier, the party declared Tej Pratap Yadav, Akhilesh's nephew and son-in-law of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, as its candidate.

As per the seat agreement between the Samajwadi Party and Congress in Uttar Pradesh, Congress is contesting on 17 seats and the Samajwadi Party has the remaining 63 seats in the electorally crucial state.

Meanwhile, according to sources Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi are likely to contest the Lok Sabha election from Rae Bareli and Amethi seats, respectively.

Sources mentioned that the final decision will be taken after April 26 and nominations can be filed next week. In the second phase, Wayanad from where Rahul Gandhi is contesting will go to the polls.

Smriti Irani defeated Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Amethi. Irani has again been fielded by the Bharatiya Janata Party from the seat.

As per the seat agreement between the Samajwadi Party and Congress in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress will contest 17 seats and the Samajwadi Party the remaining 63 seats in the electorally crucial state.

Apart from its traditional strongholds of Rae Bareli and Amethi, the Congress is also contesting on Varanasi, Ghaziabad and Kanpur.

Earlier, posters featuring Robert Vadra, husband of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, appeared outside the party's office on Wednesday in the Gauriganj area of Amethi. This raised speculations of a possible ticket for Vadra.

However, the Congress appears to be wanting to put up a fight for every seat that it is contesting and has thus decided on fielding the Gandhi sibling. Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituencies will vote in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 20. (ANI)