Byelection: Shouldering Father-in-law’s Legacy, Dimple Yadav is SP Pick for Mulayam’s Mainpuri
Dimple Yadav, a former MP and wife of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, will return to the political arena after three years as she has been announced as the party candidate from Mainpuri Lok Sabha bypoll next month. This is a seat which the SP has won for the last 26 years.
The party has decided to keep its traditional seat within the family after the demise of the sitting MP and party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav last month. The Manipuri seat has a majority of Yadav and Muslim voters, that gives a decisive edge to the SP. However, the BJP has been narrowing the victory margin in recent elections in Manipuri. BJP will make this bypoll a high-voltage contest as it is an issue of prestige for the Samajwadi Party which has earlier this year lost Lok Sabha bypolls in its traditional strongholds of Azamgarh and Rampur.
Dimple, who represented the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat as an MP from 2012 to 2019, had not contested the last Lok Sabha elections in 2019 as Akhilesh Yadav said he did not want to promote any parivaarvaad in his party. Dimple’s name had also done the rounds as a candidate from the Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat earlier this year after Akhilesh Yadav vacated the seat and retained his assembly seat of Karhal. Akhilesh’s cousin, Dharmendra Yadav however contested from Azamgarh and suffered a shock defeat.
The SP feels it will sail through in Mainpuri given the ‘sympathy factor’ post Mulayam Singh Yadav’s death and the favourable caste arithmetic on the seat.
But the BJP is planning to put up a strong fight in Mainpuri as the Yogi Adityanath-led party in UP has been on an upswing since its wins in Azamgarh and Rampur bypolls.
BJP narrowed down the victory margin on Mulayam Singh Yadav in Mainpuri in 2019 to only 94,000 votes after Mulayam Singh Yadav had won the seat in 2014 by a whopping 3.64 lakh votes. BJP is still to announce its candidate for the Manipuri bypoll while its candidate in the last two Lok Sabha elections in Manipuri was Prem Singh Shakya.
UP BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said SP’s decision to put up Dimple Yadav from Manipuri was an expected one as “only the Saifai family is given preference from SP and not the common party-workers.” “They earlier put up Dharmendra Yadav from Azamgarh and now Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri. The result will be the same as in Azamgarh and BJP will create history by winning from Manipuri as well,” Tripathi said. The Samajwadi Party has won the Manipuri seat continuously since the year 1996.
