Ahead of Mainpuri bypoll, Akhilesh and Dimple visit Shivpal Yadav, seek his support

The bypoll in Mainpuri was necessitated by the demise of SP founder-patron Mulayam Singh Yadav. The constituency in Uttar Pradesh is considered to be a party stronghold.

In separate tweets after the meeting at Shivpal’s home in Saifai, Akhilesh and Dimple wrote, “Along with the blessings of Netaji and elders of the family, the people of Mainpuri are also with us.” They also shared a photograph of their meeting with Shivpal and his son Aditya Yadav, who is the state president of the PSP-Lohia.

Later, Shivpal tweeted two photographs of their meeting. “Jis bagh ko seencha ho khud neta ji ne…uss bagh ko ab hum seenchenge apne khoon paseene se (The orchard nurtured by Netaji [Mulayam] will now be nurtured by me with hard work),” he wrote.

Shivpal also tweeted a separate photograph of himself with Akhilesh. It holds significance against the backdrop of six-year-long differences between the two. The last time the SP shared a photograph of the two in one frame was when they met ahead of Assembly elections and decided to contest the polls together. However, both parted ways again after the elections.

And PSP-Lohia spokesperson Arvind Yadav said, “Socialists have the history that they come together when they have to fight for ideology. PSP-L workers will support the SP candidate and the entire party including our top leaders will campaign for Dimple Yadavji.”

BJP state president Bhupendra Singh Chauhdary said the fear of defeat had made Akhilesh to remember his uncle and meet him. “Shivpal was lying neglected (in the SP). His name was not in any category in any of the past bypolls. The SP is fearing defeat because of the increase in the BJP’s strength and influence. So the SP has made him a star campaigner and is trying to convince him,” Chaudhary told reporters. The BJP is prepared to win the Mainpuri bypoll by a big margin, he added.

Shivpal and Mulayam have nearby but separate homes in Saifai. Akhilesh and Dimple had been in the village for the past few days and Shivpal reached there on Tuesday. But they met on Thursday, when discussions started within the PSP-Lohia and the SP that Shivpal was upset with Akhilesh because he did not field his uncle in the bypoll and that was why he was not present when Dimple filed her nomination earlier this week.

But Akhilesh later had included Shivpal’s name in the list of star campaigners for the Mainpuri bypoll, after the BJP fielded former MP Raghuraj Singh Shakya, a long-time associate of Shivpal and a political protege of Mulayam.
Shivpal is the MLA from Jaswantnagar and his support is crucial for Dimple. In 2019, despite BSP support, Mulayam won the Mainpuri seat by a margin of only 94,389 votes. He had got his biggest lead from Jaswantnagar, where he had got 1.37 lakh votes—62,126 votes more than the BJP candidate.

Mulayam got the second-highest number of votes in the Karhal Assembly segment, which elected Akhilesh in 2022.

Mainpuri will go to the polls on December 5 and the votes will be counted on December 8.