Uttar Pradesh: Yadav clan to take call on Mainpuri candidate

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party leadership is set to regroup within the next few days to decide the candidate for Mainpuri Lok Sabha bypoll to be held on December 5. The meeting, which if held in Saifai, is expected to be attended by non-political seniors of the Yadav clan to draw a consensus on the candidate.
The meeting is likely to be attended by the "entire" Yadav clan including SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Shivpal Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav and Dharmendra Yadav. Sources said invitations for the meeting were likely to be communicated on Sunday. Shivpal is presently on a tour of Bundelkhand region while Ram Gopal Yadav was in Delhi. Sources said for the Rampur assembly seat the party will name the candidate recommended by Azam Khan.
For SP, retaining the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, which fell vacant with the death of party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, is more a matter of prestige than a mere political victory. The SP leadership, it is learnt, has decided to give weightage to the opinion of the senior members of the clan to ensure a victory.
Though names of former Mainpuri MP Tej Pratap Yadav and former Kannauj MP Dimple Yadav are already doing the rounds, it is an open secret that Shivpal has also shown his inclination in 'performing the duty that is assigned by the Yadav clan'. Months before Mulayam took till, Shivpal had announced that he would contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Mainpuri in case the SP patriarch decides not to enter the fray.
Sources in SP said Tej Pratap, who is the son-in-law of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, has been nursing Mainpuri seat after Mulayam won the elections in 2019. Tej Pratap, grandson of Mulayam's eldest bother, was Netaji's constituency representative since the SP founder was unwell for last two years. "He knows the people of the constituency like the back of his hand and happens to be the obvious choice of the SP," said a senior party leader.
Sources, however, maintain that the leadership will not be averse to naming Shivpal's candidature for the bypoll in case the Yadav clan veterans insist on his name. Political observers feel that the recent bonhomie between Shivpal and Akhilesh, witnessed after Mulayam's death, has already brought the two closer. But if this will translate into political unity remains to be seen.