Dimple Yadav, former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav's wife, is a two-time ex-MP. (File)
Former MP Dimple Yadav, wife of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, will contest from Uttar Pradesh's Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat left vacant after her father-in-law Mulayam Singh Yadav's death.
The parliamentary contest will be held on December 5 to coincide with byelections to assembly constituencies across five states, including two seats in UP. Results will be out on December 8, along with those of assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
Dimple Yadav, 42, became Lok Sabha member twice from Kannauj, but lost the seat in 2019.
Mulayam Singh Yadav, who died last month after a prolonged illness, had won the family seat of Mainpuri in 2019 against what was seen as Modi Wave 2.0, though with the lowest margin in his career. He'd got 5.2 lakh votes against the BJP candidate's 4.3 lakh — margin being just over 94,000 votes. This was much below the margin of 3.6 lakh with which he'd won in 2014.
Samajwadi Party has won every Lok Sabha poll in Mainpuri since 1996, when Mulayam Singh Yadav won it first. He won it four consecutive times starting with 2004. In beteeen, stand-in candidates from his party won in 1998, 1999 and in a bypoll in 2014.
Of the five assembly segments that form this Lok Sabha seat, the Samajwadi Party won three and BJP got two in the assembly elections earlier this year. These include Akhilesh Yadav from Karhal and Mulayam Singh's younger brother, Shivpal Singh Yadav, from Jaswantnagar seat.
The family's feud will be among issues front and centre as Shivpal Yadav remains upset despite sporadic signs of a thaw. He has said the Mainpuri bypoll will “decide the fate of UP and the country”, and accused nephew Akhilesh of being “surrounded by sycophants”.
Shivpal Yadav has claimed that his Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) — formed in 2018, later an ally of Akhilesh Yadav-led SP in the assembly polls — is the “real" heir to Mulayam Singh Yadav's legacy.
The SP has been unable to unseat the BJP but its numbers in the assembly more than doubled from 47 seats in 2017 to 111 of the state's 403 this year.