Mainpuri/Kannauj (UP), May 1 Lok Sabha constituencies like Mainpuri, Kannauj, Firozabad and Azamgarh have always been considered safe seats for late Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family, mainly because of the large Yadav population there.
However, this time candidates from the Yadav family on these seats are facing turbulent weather and aggressive campaigning by the BJP, coupled with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma, is making them increasingly uncomfortable.
Moreover, since its inception in 1992, the SP will be contesting a Lok Sabha election for the first time without its founder, Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The responsibility of retaining the family seats now rests on the shoulders of Akhilesh Yadav.
Mainpuri, known as a Samajwadi bastion, has Dimple Yadav seeking re-election and she is pitted against UP Minister Jaiveer Singh.
Dimple Yadav has suffered shock defeats in Firozabad bypolls in 2009 when Raj Babbar of the Congress defeated her and then again in 2019 from Kannauj when Subrat Pathak of the BJP trounced her.
Dimple knows that Mainpuri, this time will not be a cakewalk and she has been campaigning vigorously.
Her elder daughter Aditi Yadav is also seeking votes for her mother.
While the BJP is making concerted effort to wrest the seat from the SP, the BSP is playing spoiler by fielding Shiv Prasad Yadav as its candidate.
Yadav is bound to bite into the four lakh Yadav votes.
In Kannauj, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav recently announced his own candidature at the last minute.
The SP has won from Kannauj seven times, including two bypolls. A major exception was in 2019 when Dimple Yadav suffered a defeat at the hands of BJP’s Subrat Pathak.
The BJP has retained Pathak, and Akhilesh will now hope to avenge his wife’s defeat.
The Congress, meanwhile, can offer little support to Akhilesh in Kannauj because the party has minimal presence in the constituency.
The SP faces its biggest challenge in Budaun Lok Sabha constituency where Aditya Yadav, son of Shivpal Yadav, is making his electoral debut.
The party first named Dharmendra Yadav as its candidate from Budaun, then changed over to Shivpal Yadav and finally named Aditya Yadav.
Shivpal has had major differences with his nephew Akhilesh in the past and since other family members are busy with their own elections, Shivpal alone, is managing his son’s campaign.
“Budaun has been a SP stronghold. Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav), Professor Ram Gopal Yadav and Dharmendra had been MPs. This time also we are going to retain the seat,” he said rather confidently.
In 2019, Sanghmitra Maurya had won the seat for the BJP which has replaced her with Durvijay Shakya this time.
The BSP has again made things difficult for the SP by fielding Muslim Khan from Budaun as the constituency has 400,000 Muslim voters.
As Budaun prepares to votes in the third phase of elections on May 7, a controversy has erupted for Aditya Yadav with his old student life photographs at a pool party having gone viral on social media.
In the pictures that surfaced on the Internet, Yadav was seen posing in a swimming pool with some girls.
"These photographs are of my student life. Some of the girls shown in the pictures are my friends and some are sisters, who tie Rakhi on my hand," he told reporters.
Akshay Yadav, son of Prof Ram Gopal Yadav, is contesting from Firozabad for the third-consecutive Lok Sabha polls.
During the Yadav family feud, Prof Ram Gopal Yadav had stood firmly with Akhilesh.
Akshay will take on the BJP’s Vishwadeep Singh in Firozabad, replacing its sitting MP Chandrasen Jadon. Singh is a Thakur and is reaching out to the community.
Sources say that the going may not be very easy for Akshay Yadav, this time too. Dharmendra Yadav, meanwhile, has been fielded from Azamgarh where he will challenge the BJP’s sitting MP and Bhojpuri star Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua.
A major factor that will boost Dharmendra Yadav’s candidature is that Guddu Jamali (of BSP), who had ensured his defeat in 2019 by taking away 2.66 lakh votes, has now joined the SP and is supporting Dharmendra.
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