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Journalism of Courage
The Samajwadi Party family is contesting five seats in the state, with party chief Akhilesh Yadav replacing party patriarch and father Mulayam Singh Yadav from Azamgarh seat, Mulayam himself from Yadav bastion Mainpuri, Akhilesh’s wife Dimple from Kannauj and his cousins Dharmendra and Akshay from Badaun and Firozabad, respectively.
Among these five seats, while others seem to be in a better position against rival candidates, the equations on Kannauj and Firozabad seats has made the fight toughest for Dimple and Akshay this election.
A senior party leader told The Sunday Express that everybody obviously focusing on the family’s seats and ensure big win there.
In Kannauj, two-time MP from the constituency Dimple has again been fielded from the seat. With the BSP becoming its alliance partner and Congress not fielding candidates where the Yadav family members are contesting, the SP’s only rival is BJP as SP rebel and Akhilesh’s uncle, Shivpal Yadav, recently withdrew his party, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party’s (PSP) candidate against “pariwar ki bahu” Dimple.
It was the Firozabad Lok Sabha seat which happened to be the primary reason for the feud in the Yadav family. In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Shivpal wanted his son Aditya to be fielded from the seat for the SP. However, Ram Gopal Yadav won over Shivpal's efforts and managed to get his son Akshay a party ticket for the same. As Akshay won, the rift widened and finally Akhilesh took the reins of the party from his father by fighting the legal battle at the Election Commission before 2017 assembly polls. After severing ties with the party and announcing his own party, Shivpal's prime focus is to ensure a defeat for Ram Gopal's son Akshay by contesting against him.
In 2014, Dimple had won the seat by a narrow margin of 19,907 votes against the the BJP’s Subrat Pathak. The BJP candidate is the only competition for Dimple after PSP candidate Sunil Kumar Singh Rathore decided not to file his nomination at the last moment.
Pathak had also contested the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and had stood third behind Dimple and BSP candidate Mahesh Chandra Verma, who lost the poll by 1.15 lakh votes to Dimple. The seat has been with the SP since 1999 after Mulayam won it. After that, Akhilesh won the seat thrice – 2000, 2004, 2009. He vacated the seat in 2012 and Dimple contested the bypoll and won the seat. The seat is likely to see a two-way contest between Dimple and Pathak and considering the fact that Pathak lost by a very narrow margin in 2014, it would be a tough task for SP to retain the seat.
Meanwhile, another seat which is likely to see a close contest is Firozabad. The only contest to watch out for here is between Mulayam’s cousin Ram Gopal Yadav’s son Akshay and his uncle and PSP chief Shivpal, who has been contesting against the nephew and camping in Firozabad for his campaign. PSP leaders working with Shivpal in the constituency claim they are confident of winning the seat. “Our campaign is being organised by the people themselves and we will win,” said PSP’s Ram Darshan Yadav, who is in charge of campaigning in Firozabad.
SP’s district chief Suman Devi Savita’s husband Raghuveer Singh Savita accepted that with Shivpal contesting the polls, the Yadav and Muslim votes will get divided, but they are confident of a victory.
“People were angry that MP Akshay Yadav did not meet people in the constituency for a long time. We have addressed the people’s issues,” Raghuveer told The Indian Express.
The BJP has this time fielded Chandra Singh Jadaun from the seat. Jadaun is contesting the Lok Sabha polls for the first time, while last time’s runner up SP Baghel has been fielded by the BJP from Agra and according to sources, there is resentment within the BJP district leadership because of the move to not field Baghel again, who many party leaders believe would have gained from the Yadav and Muslim votes getting divided. The Congress has not fielded a candidate from Firozabad.
In Azamgarh, Akhilesh Yadav is contesting against BJP candidate and Bhojpuri actor Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ only, who during previous SP regime, was conferred ‘Yash Bharti’ award from the hands of then CM Akhilesh Yadav.
SP’s district chief Hawaldar Yadav claimed that PSP – which had been claiming that it will field candidates from 79 seats in the state – “will not be fielding candidate against the SP chief”. A source in the PSP district leadership, too, confirmed that the party will not field “candidate in Azamgarh”.
In Mainpuri, which in the 2014 polls, was won by Mulayam by a huge margin against BJP’s Shatrughan Singh Chauhan. The seat was vacated by Mulayam after the polls and a bypoll was held in which Tej Pratap Yadav, who is Mulayam’s brother Ratan Singh Yadav’s grandson, had defeated BJP’s Prem Singh Shakya by 3.21 lakh votes. This time, Shakya has again been fielded by the BJP.
With the PSP not fielding a candidate from Mainpuri, the SP’s fight is only with BJP’s Shakya, who had lost the bypoll against Tej Pratap Yadav by a margin of 3.21 lakh votes.
In Badaun, the BJP has this time fielded UP cabinet minister Swami Prasad Maurya’s daughter Sanghmitra to take on Dharmendra. She had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls on a BSP ticket from Mainpuri and had secured 14.29 per cent votes and stood third. She joined the BJP in 2016. The PSP is likely to not field a candidate from Badaun too, confirmed PSP sources.
Dharmendra will be getting a fight from Congress’ Saleem Iqbal Shervani who represented the seat from 1996 to 2004 for the SP and has substantial influence among the Muslims in the constituency. He had contested the 2009 elections from Badaun on Congress ticket after the SP denied him a ticket and fielded Dharmendra. Dharmendra had won that election and Shervani had stood third.
