Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav is poised to win the byelections for Mainpuri Lok Sabha segment, which fell vacant after the demise of party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, as per trends of counting of votes on Thursday.
Counting of votes for bypolls for Mainpuri Lok Sabha, and Rampur and Khatauli Assembly constituencies began at 8 am. The voting in these constituencies took place on December 5.
In Mainpuri, Dimple was leading Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Raghuraj Singh Shakya by more than 35000 votes. The byelections in Mainpuri were necessitated following the death of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav in October this year.
BJP candidate Shakya is considered a close associate of Akhilesh’s disgruntled uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav. He joined the BJP ahead of the legislative assembly elections earlier this year.
Shivpal, who contested the last assembly elections in alliance with SP but later fell out with Akhilesh, has appealed voters to vote for Dimple.
“I appeal to all the voters of Mainpuri Lok Sabha to participate enthusiastically in Mainpuri Lok Sabha by-election-2022. Your every vote is the strength of democracy. Do go to cast your vote today for progress, prosperity and all-round development of Mainpuri,” Shivpal tweeted on December 5.
Congress and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BJP) did not contest the Mainpuri parliamentary bypolls.
In 2019, Mulayam Singh Yadav won the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat by 94,000 votes in alliance with BSP. Before that election, he had said that that was his last election and hence “sympathy votes” made their way into the SP fold.
Political analysts say that Samajwadi Party could again get sympathy votes since the election is being held after the death of Mulayam, one of the tallest socialist leaders of his time.