UP assembly elections 2022: Opposition leaders to begin poll campaign with yatras

The Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh is preparing for a 'yatra' by party president Akhilesh Yadav that would mark the state's main opposition party's start of its campaign for the crucial assembly elections due early next year.
The party announced on social media that 'Samajwadi Vijay Yatra' will begin from October 12. The details of the yatra and programmes are still not out.

ET, however, has learnt that Yadav will begin his yatra on October 12 from Kanpur and will visit Bundelkhand in the first phase. In 2017, the ruling party, the BJP, had won all 19 seats of the Bundelkhand region, giving a huge setback to the SP which had eight MLAs previously.

The yatra will be carried out in phases as Yadav would be in Lucknow to look after the party affairs and election preparations.

The information on social media also created a controversy as it didn't have pictures of Mulayam Singh Yadav. Taking a dig at Akhilesh Yadav, Uttar Pradesh BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh said in a Twitter post that Yadav had forgotten to put the pictures of his father in the poster.

Reacting to the post, Udayveer Singh, SP spokesperson and MLC, told ET: "This is just information and not a party poster. Why is the BJP worried about us? We always have blessings of Mulayam Singh Yadav ji. BJP itself has removed pictures of Atal ji and PM Modi from state government ads and posters. They should first look at themselves."

Apart from SP, its alliance partner, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Jayant Chaudhary will also embark on a 'Jan Ashirvad Yatra' starting from October 7. He will start the yatra from Noorpur village in Hapur, the birthplace of former PM Chaudhary Charan Singh. The yatra will go on till October 28 covering 15 districts of West UP.

Chaudhary will address two public meetings every day during the yatra.