Mainpuri bypoll results 2022: Counting to begin shortly; can Dimple Yadav win this prestige battle for Samajwadi Party? 

Mainpuri bypoll election results: Counting of votes for the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency is set to begin at 8 am. The election was held following the demise of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav in October this year. Mainpuri went to bypolls on December 5. The SP, which has never lost any parliamentary elections since 1996, has fielded Dimple Yadav, former Lok Sabha MP from Kannauj and the wife of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Dimple Yadav is up against BJP's former MP Raghuraj Singh Shakya. Shakya is also the former confidant of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s brother Shivpal Singh Yadav. The Congress and the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) kept away from the polls, thus, ensuring a direct fight between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party and its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).

Besides Mainpuri, bypolls were also conducted in Rampur Sadar and Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh. The Rampur Sadar fell vacant due to senior SP leader Azam Khan’s disqualification after his conviction and three-year-imprisonment in a case of hate speech. These by-elections are a battle of prestige for both the BJP and the SP.

With the Congress and BSP staying away from the bypolls, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is hoping to clinch SP bastions namely Mainpuri, Rampur Sadar, and Khatauli, after demolishing the party’s presence in Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats in the June bypolls.

The SP is keen to score big on the back of Shivpal Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav’s public show of unity. In the run-up to the election campaign, Yadav also harked back to the connection his family has with the constituency and the role played by Mulayam Singh Yadav, also known as Netaji among his followers.

He said: “A lot of work has been done in this constituency by Netaji and Shivpal Yadav. Netaji and Samajwadi Party have had a direct relationship with every family here. He considered the people here as his family. Netaji knew the names of every village and person.”

A voter turnout of 51.89 per cent was recorded in Uttar Pradesh’s Mainpuri till 5 pm on December 5.

(With agency inputs)

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