Mainpuri by-election: Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate for the Mainpuri Lok Sabha bypoll Dimple Yadav is likely to file her nomination papers on Monday, a senior party leader said. Her candidature is seen as the SP's efforts to carry forward the legacy of her father-in-law Mulayam Singh Yadav on the seat, considered a stronghold of the party since 1996.
Her selection is also seen as an attempt to unite party cadres ahead of the bypoll. The 44-year-old wife of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will file her nomination at the Mainpuri collectorate on Monday afternoon, Alok Shakya, district president of the party's Mainpuri district unit, told media.
The by-election for the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat will be held on December 5 and the result will be declared on December 8. Filing of nominations for the bypoll has started, and November 17 is the last date for filing of nomination.
The Mainpuri parliamentary seat fell vacant following the demise of Mulayam Singh Yadav on October 10. Tej Pratap Yadav, a former Lok Sabha MP from Mainpuri and grand-nephew of Mulayam Singh Yadav, told reporters in Saifai (Etawah) that the nomination process would be a "simple one".
"I feel that we are going to polls at a very tough time. One month has passed since the death of 'netaji' (Mulayam Singh Yadav), and the elections have been announced. (But) we are ready for it. People of Mainpuri have always shown their dedication to take forward 'samajwadi' (socialist) thoughts and the Samajwadi Party. I am hopeful that we will win this bypoll with a huge margin," Tej Pratap Yadav said.
The Mainpuri parliamentary constituency has five assembly segments- Mainpuri, Bhongaon, Kishni, Karhal and Jaswant Nagar. In the 2022 assembly elections, the SP won the Karhal, Kishni and the Jaswant Nagar seats, while the BJP won the Mainpuri and the Bhogaon seats.
Asked about the SP's loss in the Mainpuri and the Bhogaon assembly seats, the former MP said, "On one seat, the margin was around 3,600, and on the other, it was 5,000.
But if you take into account all the seats, the numbers are with the SP."
"People here have a personal and emotional attachment with Mulayam Singh Yadav-ji. In this election, people will forget bygone things and vote for the SP. Those who had not voted for the SP earlier, will vote for the party in netaji's same," he said.
People of Mainpuri will give a befitting reply to all parties who have fielded candidates in this bypoll to help the BJP, Tej Pratap Yadav said. The BJP has not announced its candidate on the seat yet, while it is still not clear whether Congress, BSP and Shivpal Yadav's Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSPL) will contest the polls or not.
Dimple Yadav had lost the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 to BJP candidate Subrat Pathak from Kannauj. In 2019, SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav won the seat by a margin of more than 94,000 votes over his nearest rival BJP's Prem Singh Shakya.
Akhilesh's Karhal assembly seat is part of Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency and so is Jaswant Nagar, which is represented by Shivpal Yadav. Dimple Yadav was elected unopposed from the Kannauj constituency to the Lok Sabha in 2012 after Akhilesh Yadav became the chief minister and resigned from the seat to enter the Uttar Pradesh legislative council.
Yadavs account for about 35 per cent of the total 12.13 lakh voters in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency while the rest include Shakyas, Thakurs, Brahmins, Scheduled Castes and Muslims.
(With PTI inputs)
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