SP's bid to counter Modi? Mulayam Singh to contest from Azamgarh and Mainpuri

LUCKNOW: Eastern UP will be under the spotlight in the next several weeks, with SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav announcing his candidature from the Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat within days of the BJP naming Narendra Modi its candidate from Varanasi.

Mulayam will be contesting from two places, his current seat of Mainpuri and Azamgarh, said SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav.

SP strategists say Mulayam being in fray from Azamgarh, adjacent to Varanasi, would pit him and the party straight against Modi. Azamgarh has a dominant population of Muslims and Yadavs and the SP had initially planned to field Balram Yadav, a minister in the Akhilesh Yadav government, as its candidate from there. But it then named district president Havaldar Yadav, before changing its plan again.

"Mulayam’s decision to contest from east UP is mostly to do with the fact that Modi has entered the fray from there. He wants to be seen as the sole leader who was willing to stop the Modi wave by staking his prestige in Azamgarh," said Sudhir Panwar, a political commentator.

"The SP wants to make the contest into Modi vs Mulayam and gain from the effect. While (AAP’s) Arvind Kejriwal is also likely to contest from Varanasi against Modi, his effect will be confined to one seat, while Mulayam is eyeing the entire eastern-UP belt which has 32 seats," said Panwar.