SP president takes on a resurgent BJP and counters fractious family politics by fielding his wife from Mainpuri
SP president takes on a resurgent BJP and counters fractious family politics by fielding his wife from Mainpuri
By declaring his wife and former Member of Parliament, Dimple Yadav, as the party candidate from Mainpuri in the upcoming Lok Sabha bypoll on December 5, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has done his best to save his bastion from a resilient Bharatiya Janata Party, which already beat the SP in the Azamgarh and Rampur bypolls.
This election was necessitated after the death of party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav who won the Mainpuri seat four times. The Yadav-dominated seat has been held by the SP since it was formed in 1992.
It is not just the resurgent ruling party, keen on making inroads into the SP’s traditional vote bank, that is troubling Mr. Yadav. He is also facing a fractious family and perhaps that’s the reason he has decided to field his wife — not just to save the seat for the party, but also to put his own stamp on his father’s legacy within the Yadav clan.
Party insiders say it is only the bahu (daughter-in-law) who could have kept the chacha (uncle) in check. They are referring to Shivpal Yadav, Mr. Yadav’s mercurial uncle and the president of the PSP or Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia), who is prone to constantly changing his statements about the SP and its president since being allegedly sidelined after the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
Political suicide
“The name of Tej Pratap Yadav, the grandnephew of Mulayam Singh, who has represented the Mainpuri seat in the past was in the forefront, but the leadership learnt that a section of the family could scuttle his campaign. With Dimple ji, nobody could take a chance as it will be a direct attack on Netaji’s legacy and amount to political suicide,” said a party leader from the region.
He said this would also remove the possibility of Aparna Yadav, the SP president’s sister-in-law who joined the BJP earlier this year, contesting from the seat. Ms. Aparna Yadav met the State BJP president Bhupendra Chaudhary at his residence on Thursday, leading to speculation of her contesting on a BJP ticket. “Nobody in the family can take on Akhilesh directly, at least in the first election after Netaji’s demise,” added the leader.
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