Annu Tandon, The Firebrand Leader Of Samajwadi Party (Image: Instagram/Annu Tandon)

On Tuesday, January 30, the Samajwadi Party made a surprising move by declaring its candidates for 16 Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha seats. The Samajwadi Party announced the list of candidates amid seat-sharing talks with Congress. Notably, the party has fielded Annu Tandon on Unnao seat.

Anu Tandon, the former Congress MP, joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) in 2020. On that occasion, Annu Tandon praised SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, terming him a “young, progressive, and visionary” leader. The former Congress leader joined the new party while expressing her dissatisfaction with the functioning of the Congress party”s Uttar Pradesh unit. Annu Tandon also criticised that the Congress state leadership has focused only on social media management and self-branding.

In the 2008 general elections, Annu Tandon won from the Unnao Lok Sabha constituency as a Congress candidate. Annu Tandon defeated her rival by a record margin of 3,2,092 votes. However, Annu Tandon lost the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections as BJP leader Sakshi Maharaj secured victory from Unnao in both elections. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Annu Tandon, then the sitting MP, was in the fourth position behind the BJP”s Sakshi Maharaj, the SP”s Arun Shankar Shukla, and the BSP”s Brajesh Pathak. But notably, Annu Tandon managed to get close to 2 lakh votes in the 2014 polls. Unnao Lok Sabha Constituency is one of the 80 parliamentary constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. The constituency comprises six assembly segments.

Annu Tandon, the veteran politician, is also the founder and chairperson of the Hriday Narain Dhawan Charitable Trust (HNDCT). The organization works for the upliftment of the villages in Uttar Pradesh. In 2012, Annu Tandon made headlines as Aravind Kejriwal claimed that she and her late husband Sandeep Tandon had Rs. 125 crore each stashed away in an HSBC Bank branch in Geneva. However, Annu Tandon rejected the allegation and said it was “completely baseless.”