Dimple Yadav likely to file nomination for Manipuri LS bypolls

Dimple Yadav, the Samajwadi Party candidate for the Mainpuri Lok Sabha bypolls, is anticipated to submit her nomination papers on Monday, according to a senior party official.

Alok Shakya, district president of the Samajwadi Party’s Mainpuri district unit, informed PTI that the 44-year-old wife of SP leader Akhilesh Yadav will file her candidacy at the Mainpuri collectorate on Monday afternoon.

With Dimple Yadav running, the SP is attempting to continue Mulayam Singh Yadav’s legacy on the seat, which has been viewed as a stronghold for the party since 1996. Her selection is also viewed as an effort to bring party cadres together before the byelection.

The Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat’s by-election is scheduled for December 5, and the results will be announced on December 8.

The deadline for submitting nominations for the byelection is November 17, and nominations are already being accepted.

After Mulayam Singh Yadav passed away on October 10, the Mainpuri parliamentary seat became vacant.

It is currently unclear whether the Congress, BSP, and Shivpal Yadav’s Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSPL) will run in the elections, while the BJP has not yet declared its candidate for the seat.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP candidate Subrat Pathak from Kannauj defeated Dimple Yadav.

Mulayam Singh Yadav, the patriarch of the SP, defeated Prem Singh Shakya, the BJP candidate, by a margin of more than 94,000 votes in 2019.

The Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency includes Akhilesh’s Karhal Assembly seat as well as Shivpal Yadav’s representation of Jaswant Nagar.

In 2012, Dimple Yadav was elected to the Lok Sabha without opposition from the Kannauj constituency after Akhilesh was appointed chief minister and left his position to join the Uttar Pradesh legislative council.

In the 12.13 lakh voters in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, 35% are Yadavs, with the remaining electors being Shakyas, Thakurs, Brahmins, Scheduled Castes, and Muslims.

Five assembly districts make up the Mainpuri parliamentary district, including Mainpuri, Bhogaon, Kishni, Karhal, and Jaswant Nagar. In the 2022 assembly elections, the BJP won two seats (Mainpuri and Bhogaon), while the SP won three (Karhal, Kishni, and Jaswantnagar).