Samajwadi Party flag.
Credit: PTI File Photo.
Bhopal: The Samajwadi Party on Monday replaced its Khajuraho Lok Sabha candidate Mohan Yadav with former MLA Meera Deep Narayan Yadav.
Meera Yadav will take on Madhya Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party chief and sitting MP VD Sharma. Polls on the seat, which is the only one allotted in the state to the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP by the Congress under an agreement between the two parties, will take place on April 26.
"The change was made to pit a powerful and local candidate against the BJP," SP national spokesperson Yash Bhartiya told PTI over phone.
VD Sharma had won from Khajuraho in 2019 with a margin of more than 4.5 lakh votes.
Meera Yadav had won from Niwari assembly seat, which is part of Khajurahao Lok Sabha constituency, on an SP ticket in 2008. Her husband Deep Narayan Yadav was SP MLA in 2007 and 2012 from Garautha in Jhansi in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. It shares a border with MP's Niwari district. Deep Yadav has also been MP SP chief.
The candidature of Manoj Yadav, who is from Shikohabad in Uttar Pradesh but has settled in MP, was announced by SP two days ago.