Saifai/Etawah: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his wife and party candidate Dimple Yadav met with his uncle and PSPL chief Shivpal Singh Yadav in Saifai on Thursday. With the Mainpuri Lok Sabha poll just around the corner, Shivpal Singh Yadav, president of the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) appealed to his party workers to ensure Dimple’s victory. “We will sparge the garden (referring to Mainpuri) irrigated by Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) with our blood and sweat”, Shivpal said in a tweet in Hindi after the meeting at his residence. Shivpal Yadav also shared a couple of pictures of the meeting.
Mainpuri Lok Sabha has been a bastion of the Samajwadi Party for the last 26 years, and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav has won the seat four times. Taking to twitter, Akhilesh Yadav said, “Along with the blessings of ‘Netaji’ and elders of the family, the people of Mainpuri are also with us.”
Shivpal’s role in the election is important as his assembly constituency Jaswantnagar comes under the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency, from where he has been elected six times.
Shivpal has a close relationship with the people of Mainpuri and used to go as Mulayam’s representative in various programmes held in the area when the SP patriarch was unavailable. Shivpal Yadav’s campaigning in favour of Dimple Yadav is also considered important as the BJP has nominated Raghuraj Singh Shakya, who was once a close aide of Shivpal Yadav, as its candidate from this seat.
Shivpal Singh, who heads the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia (PSPL), and the SP chief had come together during the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls in March to take on the BJP, but after the elections, the relationship saw a dip and they again parted ways. However, they were seen taking part in rituals together after Mulayam Singh Yadav’s death last month.
Reacting to the meeting, BJP leader Sidharth Nath Singh took a dig at the SP chief, saying the fear of defeat made Akhilesh Yadav remember his uncle. “Akhilesh-ji remembered his uncle because of elections? this is called fear of defeat,” Singh said in a tweet in Hindi.
The bypoll will be held on December 5, and the result will be announced on December 8. Dimple Yadav filed her nomination papers last Monday. At that time, neither Shivpal Singh Yadav nor his son Aditya Yadav were present.
Bureau Report
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