section_path: Political career
section_name: Political career
paragraph_text: Political career
  
  Since İmamoğlu's father was a member of the Motherland Party (ANAP), İmamoğlu briefly participated in the youth wing of the party in early 1990s although his mother's family was supportive of Republican People's Party (CHP). İmamoğlu joined the CHP in 2008, and was elected as the head of the party's youth wing in 2009. On 16 September 2009, he was selected by the CHP as the president of party's local chapter in the Istanbul district of Beylikdüzü. He was then reelected to this position on 8 March 2012, before resigning on 15 July 2013 to run for mayor of Beylikdüzü. The election was held on 30 March 2014, as part of the 2014 Turkish local elections, and İmamoğlu won with 50.83% of the vote, defeating the incumbent AK Party candidate Yusuf Uzun.
  
  Following the announcement of Istanbul Municipality Mayor Kadir Topbaş 's resignation on 23 September 2017, İmamoğlu was nominated by the CHP to replace him. In the Istanbul Municipal Assembly election to fulfill the remainder of Topbaş's term, İmamoğlu lost to the AKP candidate Mevlüt Uysal after three rounds, by a mostly party-line vote of 125 to 179.