Mainpuri By-Polls: Dimple Yadav Is Samajwadi Party Candidate, BJP And Rajbhar's SBSP Too In The Race

Samajwadi Party (SP) announced Dimple Yadav as its candidate for the by-election on the Mainpuri parliamentary seat on Thursday (10 November).

The by-poll was necessitated by the death of SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav. Dimple Yadav is Mulayam's daughter-in-law and former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav's wife.

Dimple has served as a Member of Parliament (MP) of Kannauj from 2012 to 2019. However, she was defeated by BJP candidate Subrat Pathak in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Mainpuri seat has been with the SP since 1996. Mulayam himself won from here in 1996, 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019 elections.

However, he had left this seat twice for by-elections. Once in 2004 to continue as the CM of UP and once in 2014 when he won from two seats and chose to keep Azamgarh for himself. SP candidates won by-polls both times.

Om Prakash Rajbhar-led Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) declared Ramakant Kashyap as its candidate for the by-election on Wednesday.

Kashyap had joined SBSP after leaving Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) only two years ago. He hails from Etawah. Mainpuri constituency comprises the whole of Mainpuri district and a part of Etawah district.

SBSP was an alliance party of SP in the assembly elections held earlier this year. But then the SBSP president started openly criticising Akhilesh Yadav and parted ways.

Rajbhar has now said, "Akhilesh Yadav gave us divorce and we accepted it." He also claimed that Shivpal Singh Yadav should continue SP's legacy, not Akhilesh Yadav.

Meanwhile, Shivpal Yadav's Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (SBSP), Mayawati's BSP and Congress have not revealed their plans for the Mainpuri by-election.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to fight this election with full fervour. It has been consistently increasing its vote share in this seat for some time now and has already replaced BSP to secure a second position in the past two elections.

Five assembly segments form the Mainpuri parliamentary constituency. The BJP won two of them and the SP three in the recent assembly elections.

While the BJP has not announced its candidate yet, rumours suggest that it might give a ticket to Mulayam's other daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav. She had joined BJP in January this year.

Aparna Yadav is the wife of Prateek Yadav, Mulayam's son from his second wife. She had contested on an SP ticket from Lucknow Cantt in the 2017 assembly elections, but lost to BJP's Rita Bahuguna Joshi.

Along with Mainpuri, Khatauli assembly seat is also going for the by-polls. The nomination filing for these seats began today (10 November), the polling will be held on 5 December and the counting will be done on 8 December.

Earlier, the by-election on the Rampur assembly seat was also expected to follow the same schedule. However, its notification has been put on hold after sitting MLA Azam Khan filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against his disqualification.