Lucknow/IBNS: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Uttar Pradesh's Kannauj, the seat that sent him to Parliament thrice, his party said Wednesday in a post on X.

His wife, Dimple Yadav also won elections from the seat.

Kannauj was a Samajwadi Party stronghold as it was won by Akhilesh Yadav's father, Mulayam Singh in 1999, by Yadav in 2000, 2004, and 2009, and by his wife, Dimple in 2012 and 2014 till the BJP's Subrat Pathak won it for his party in 2019.

Yadav, a former UP Chief Minister, will file his papers on Thursday at noon, the SP said. He also won the Azamgarh seat in 2019, but quit after he was elected to the UP Assembly from Karhal in 2022.

Speculation that the SP leader will return to the Lok Sabha battlefield had been doing the rounds in the media for a while.

Earlier in the day, SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav confirmed to the media about Akhilesh Yadav's decision to contest from Kannauj.

Yadav's proverbial homecoming means SP leader Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, who was named as the candidate earlier this week will not contest.

Tej Pratap Yadav is Akhilesh Yadav's nephew; he is the grandson of Mulayam Yadav's brother Ranveer, and won the Mainpuri seat in the 2014 election.

Kannauj will vote in the fourth phase of the 2024 election, on May 13. Results for all seven phases will be declared on June 4.