Akhilesh Yadav claims Mulayam will win Manipuri LS seat by biggest margin in country

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday said party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav will win the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat by the biggest margin in the country.

The SP chief made the comment on the eve of his father filing his nomination papers from Mainpuri.

“Netaji’s (Mulayam’s) victory will be historic. His victory will be the biggest in the country (by way of vote margin). All party workers in the constituency must engage in making people vote for the ‘gathbandhan’ (SP-BSP alliance),” he said.

Akhilesh and Mulayam reached Saifai, their ancestral village, on Sunday as Mulayam, the SP founder and party’s chief patron now, is scheduled to file his nomination for the seat on Monday. Mulayam has won the seat four times before, including in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He vacated the seat and retained Azamgarh, the other seat that he won. Akhilesh said the turnout was low in most rallies addressed by BJP leaders and there were empty chairs at the venue.

When newspersons asked him about the possibility of the Pragatisheel Samajwadi PartyLohia (PSPL) president Shivpal Yadav joining the nomination filing event of Mulayam, Akhilesh said: “The Election Commission keeps a tab on who is coming, how many cars are there”.

Shivpal Yadav was locked in a bitter feud with Akhilesh for control of the party since August 2016 till the SP chief took over the party’s reins in January 2017.