Samajwadi Party’s Dimple Yadav filed her nomination for Uttar Pradash’s Mainpuri seat on Monday, 14 November. The seat fell vacant with the death of Samajwadi Party (SP) founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, who passed away after a prolonged illness on 10 October.
After much speculation, the party had announced Dimple Yadav’s candidacy for the upcoming byelection on 10 November. The polling will take place on 5 December and the votes will be counted on 8 December.
Who Is Dimple Yadav?
The candidate is a former lawyer, party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife, and founder Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law.
Her parents are Thakurs with an army background. She got married to Akhilesh in 1999.
Dimple’s introduction to politics was in 2009 when she had contested the Firozabad Lok Sabha bypoll. However, she lost at the time. She then won from the Kannauj Lok Sabha constituency twice – first in 2012 and then in 2014.
However, in the last Lok Sabha elections, she lost the seat to BJP’s Subrat Pathak.
Why the Seat Is Crucial for the Party
The constituency is a stronghold of the party. The party has been winning the constituency consistently since 1996.
Mulayam Singh Yadav won in 1996, 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019. However, in the last Lok Sabha elections, the margin of victory for SP was very thin and BJP emerged as the runner-up.
Prior to that, the seat was won by SP’s Balram Singh. After Mulayam vacated his seat in 2014, his grand-nephew, Tej Pratap Yadav, carried forward his legacy. In total, the party has won the seat at least nine times, including two bypolls. Prior to the announcement of Dimple’s candidacy, word was that the party would field either Tej Pratav Yadav or Dimple.
If Dimple wins, she will be the first woman MP of Mainpuri.
The Constituency’s Demography
The Yadavs account for over five lakh voters and Muslims account for one lakh voters. There are almost 4 lakh non-Yadav OBC voters, 2.5 lakh Dalits. The remaining voters are from other upper-castes, which include around 70,000 Thakurs.
The party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Secretary General Ram Gopal Yadav and other party leaders will be present when she files for nomination. The Yadav family will be present too.
(With inputs from The Indian Express, NDTV and Hindustan Times.)
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