Samajwadi Party fields Mulayam from Mainpuri, puts all speculation to rest

Samajwadi Party chief patron Mulayam Singh Yadav will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh’s Mainpuri, a constituency he has represented four times in the past.

The party released its first list of six candidates -- three general and an equal number of reserved seats -- for the elections that are expected to be notified this weekend or early next week.

The seats are Mainpuri, Badaun, Firozabad, Etawah (reserved), Robertsganj (reserved), and Bahraich (reserved)

The general seats will be contested by three sitting MP--Mulayam on Mainpuri (the seat that he had won but vacated to retain the Azamgarh), Dharmendra Yadav will re-contest his traditional Badaun seat, and Akshaya Yadav on his Firozabad seat.

Dharmendra Yadav, a cousin of Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav had contested and won his first elections in 2004--the Lok Sabha bypolls in Mainpuri. Then too, Mulayam had contested two seats, Mainpuri and Sambhal. He retained Sambhal.

Dharmendra is 40, a post graduate from Allahabad University, and was born in the Yadav’s ancestral village--Saifai just as Mulayam, Shivpal, Akhilesh, and several other Yadav family politicians. In 2009 and 2014, Dharmendra had contested Badaun and won both the times.

Akshaya Yadav, 32, is the newest Yadav in electoral politics. He contested his first elections in 2014 on Firozabad Lok Sabha seat and won. He too is a cousin of SP national president Akhilesh Yadav. The son of the party national general secretary, Ram Gopal Yadav, Akshaya is likely to face a tough situation in Firozabad. His uncle Shivpal Yadav, the chief of Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) has announced his candidature from Firozabad seat.

Kamlesh Katheria will contest the Etawah reserved seat, Bhailal Kol has been fielded on Robertsganj reserved seat, and Shabbir Balmiki will try his luck on Bahraich reserved seat.

Party’s national general secretary, Ramgopal Yadav released the first list from party’s New Delhi office.

There had been an uncertainty if Mulayam will contest or not, with the declaration the speculation seems to be over but not fully. Mulayam so far has not even once made any statement if he would contest or not.

Mulayam brother Shivpal Yadav, the president of Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) too had been talking about fielding Mulayam on Mainpuri on his party’s ticket. Mulayam, last fortnight, had expressed displeasure over “delay in seat declaration in Samajwadi Party”.

With Mulayam on Mainpuri, now the sitting SP MP on the seat, Tej Pratap Singh Yadav is likely to be fielded from Sambhal seat.

Dharmendra Yadav had won the Badaun seat both in 2009 and 2014, while Akshaya Yadav made his entry into politics by winning the Firozabad seat in 2014. Already, Shivpal Yadav has declared himself a PSPL candidate on Firozabad seat and the battle is set to be interesting on this seat.