Mainpuri Lok Sabha by-election – Photo: Amar Ujala
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Along with the second phase of the Gujarat assembly elections, voting will also be held on six assembly seats in five states and Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh today i.e. on Monday. The five states where bypolls are to be held include Rampur Sadar and Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh, Padampur in Odisha, Sardarshahar in Rajasthan, Kurhani in Bihar and Bhanupratappur in Chhattisgarh.
However, after the Gujarat elections, if the most talked about is the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat. Dimple Yadav, daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadav and wife of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, has won the by-election from here. The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded Raghuraj Singh Shakya as its candidate against Dimple. The name of Raghuraj Singh Shakya is important because he has been very close to Akhilesh’s uncle and MLA from Etawah Shivpal Singh Yadav.
Till February he was in Shivpal Yadav’s party. He had joined the BJP after the settlement between Shivpal and Akhilesh. Let’s know everything about Raghuraj Shakya. What is Shakya’s relationship with the Yadav family? How big a challenge can Shakya and Dimple Yadav pose to each other in Mainpuri? First know about Raghuraj Singh Shakya Raghuraj Singh Shakya was considered very close to Shivpal Singh Yadav. In 1999 and 2004, he was elected MP from Etawah Lok Sabha seat on Samajwadi Party ticket. In 2004, SP nominated Shakya from Etawah Lok Sabha, when he got 367,807 votes. In 2009, SP had given ticket to Shakya from Fatehpur Sikri. However, then he was at number four. Got ticket from Etawah assembly in 2012 and Shakya won the election.
In 2017, when the rift between Shivpal Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav started, Shakya also joined the Progressive Samaj Party with Shivpal. This time the 2022 assembly elections were preparing to fight with the Praspa-SP alliance. He was also assured that he would be given a ticket from Etawah, but at the last moment SP fielded Sarvesh Shakya from there. Sarvesh is the son of former MP Ram Singh Shakya. Angered by this, Raghuraj left Praspa on February 8, 2022 and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
How big a challenge for both of them? To understand this, we spoke to senior journalist Pramod Kumar Singh. He said, ‘Raghuraj Singh Shakya has been an old leader of the Samajwadi Party. Mulayam-Shivpal remained close to Singh Yadav. He had a good interference in the Yadav family. In such a situation, his contesting against SP is a big political message. He can make a dent in SP’s vote. Especially in Mainpuri, the number of Shakya voters is very high. In such a situation, Raghuraj Singh Shakya can prove to be lucky for the BJP.
Pramod further says, ‘Till some time ago there was a lot of rift between Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav. After the demise of Mulayam Singh Yadav, the two once again came close. During the campaigning for the Mainpuri by-election, the closeness of the two created a lot of stir in the political corridor. This did not go down well with the message, especially for the BJP.
According to Pramod, ‘Earlier it was believed that Shivpal could help his close aide Raghuraj Singh Shakya and the BJP from behind the scenes in the by-elections, but he did the exact opposite. In the by-election, he gave full force for Dimple. Shivpal campaigned more than Akhilesh Yadav in Mainpuri. In such a situation, it can now be said that this time the fight is going to be tough. Both the candidates are giving a tough challenge to each other. What is the equation of Mainpuri? Mainpuri currently has about 17 lakh voters. Of these, 9.70 lakh are males and 7.80 lakh are females. In 2019, 58.5% people had exercised their franchise in this seat. Mulayam Singh Yadav got a total of 5,24,926 votes, while Bharatiya Janata Party’s Prem Singh Shakya, who came second, got 4,30,537 votes. Mulayam had won by a margin of 94,389 votes.
Talking about the caste equation, this seat is dominated by backward caste voters. Yadav has the maximum number of voters here. Their number is about 3.5 lakhs. There are also a good number of Shakya, Thakur and Jatav voters. Among these, there are votes of about one lakh 60 thousand Shakyas, one lakh 50 thousand Thakurs, one lakh 40 thousand Jatavs, one lakh 20 thousand Brahmins, one lakh Lodhi Rajputs. Vaish and Muslim voters are also close to one lakh. Kurmi voters are also more than one lakh.
Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat has five assembly seats. Of these, four seats – Mainpuri, Bhogaon, Kishni and Karhal are from Mainpuri district. Along with this, Jaswantnagar assembly seat of Etawah district is also a part of this Lok Sabha seat. In the assembly elections held this year, the BJP won two seats in Mainpuri district, while the Samajwadi Party candidate won two. In this, Mainpuri and Bhogaon went to the BJP’s account, while Kishni and Karhal belonged to the SP. Akhilesh Yadav himself is the MLA from Karhal. On the other hand, Shivpal Singh Yadav won the Jaswantnagar seat of Etawah on an SP ticket.
Expansion
Along with the second phase of the Gujarat assembly elections, voting will also be held on six assembly seats in five states and Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh today i.e. on Monday. The five states where bypolls are to be held include Rampur Sadar and Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh, Padampur in Odisha, Sardarshahar in Rajasthan, Kurhani in Bihar and Bhanupratappur in Chhattisgarh.
However, after the Gujarat elections, if the most talked about is the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat. Dimple Yadav, daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadav and wife of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, has won the by-election from here. The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded Raghuraj Singh Shakya as its candidate against Dimple. The name of Raghuraj Singh Shakya is important because he has been very close to Akhilesh’s uncle and MLA from Etawah Shivpal Singh Yadav.
Till February he was in Shivpal Yadav’s party. He had joined the BJP after the settlement between Shivpal and Akhilesh. Let’s know everything about Raghuraj Shakya. What is Shakya’s relationship with the Yadav family? How big a challenge can Shakya and Dimple Yadav pose to each other in Mainpuri?
Ritika
