Mainpuri bypoll: Mulayam’s daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav to defend his Lok Sabha seat
Since the day after Mulayam’s death, the names of former Mainpuri MP Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, Akhilesh’s cousin Dharmendra Yadav and Dimple Yadav were being speculated for the Mainpuri seat.
Ending all speculation, the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Thursday declared Dimple Yadav as its candidate for the crucial Mainpuri Lok Sabha bypoll scheduled for December 5.
Dimple Yadav, former Kannauj MP and wife of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, will contest the seat in an attempt to inherit it from her father-in-law, the late Mulayam Singh Yadav who had founded the Samajwadi Party in 1992. Mulayam passed away on October 10 after a prolonged illness at a hospital in Gurugram. His demise caused the seat to fall vacant. The Mainpuri bypoll notification was issued on Thursday.
Dimple Yadav had won the Kannauj Lok Sabha bypoll in 2012 when Akhilesh Yadav quit the seat on becoming the Uttar Pradesh chief minister. She again won the seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, but lost it to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Subrat Pathak in 2019.
Since the day after Mulayam’s death, the names of former Mainpuri MP Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, Akhilesh’s cousin Dharmendra Yadav and Dimple Yadav were being speculated for the Mainpuri seat. Initially, Tej Pratap was said to be the front-runner. He is the grandnephew of Mulayam and son-in-law of Bihar former chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Tej Pratap had won the seat in the 2014 Mainpuri Lok Sabha bypoll that was held after Mulayam vacated the seat and retained Azamgarh.
Dharmendra Yadav is a former Badaun MP, who had lost the Azamgarh Lok Sabha bypoll in June this year (after Akhilesh vacated the seat to retain his Karhal assembly seat) to the BJP. The SP also lost the Rampur Lok Sabha bypoll to the BJP in June.
Earlier, on Wednesday, in what is being interpreted as a strategic move ahead of the Mainpuri bypoll, the Samajwadi Party appointed former U.P. minister Alok Shakya as its Mainpuri district president.
Appointing Shakya to the post is a strategic caste arithmetic move by the SP, insiders say. Shakyas are the second dominant caste in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency after Yadavs. There are an estimated seven lakh Yadavs and three lakh Shakyas in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency.
The BJP had fielded a Shakya candidate — Prem Singh Shakya — against Mulayam in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Mulayam Singh Yadav won the seat by securing 5,24,926 votes in 2019. Prem Singh Shakya was second with 30,537 votes.
The Mainpuri bypoll result will be declared on December 8.
Taking a dig at the SP, Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, in a tweet in Hindi, said: “The SP had fielded Dharmendra Yadav in the Azamgarh LS bypolls and has named Dimple Yadav as the candidate for the Mainpuri LS bypolls. The SP is not able to find candidates outside the family.”
In another tweet, Maurya said the BJP will win the Mainpuri seat.
He wrote: “The SP has no present or future. Tributes to Mulayam Singh Yadav ji. The lotus will bloom in Mainpuri...”
SP HAS WON MAINPURI LS SEAT NINE TIMES
The Samajwadi Party has won the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat nine times, including twice in bypolls. Mulayam Singh Yadav won the seat five times, including in 2019. The BJP or its forerunner the Jana Sangh could never win the seat since 1952. Since 2004, the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat is with the Mulayam family. If Dimple Yadav wins it, she will be the first woman MP of Mainpuri.
