Dimple Yadav, Ex-MP Who Is Returning To LS As Mulayam Singh Yadav's Mainpuri Elects The Daughter-In-Law

The byelection to the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency was necessitated after the death of sitting MP and former Uttar Pradesh CM Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Dimple Yadav was fielded against BJP's Raghuraj Singh Shakya.

Source : Getty

New Delhi: Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Dimple Yadav won the Mainpuri Lok Sabha byelection, retaining her late father-in-law and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's seat with the family. She beat her nearest rival Raghuraj Shakya of the BJP by 2,88,461 votes as the verdict was declared Thursday along with that of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections.

It was a charged battle for the seat, the byelection to which took place on December 5. There was a direct contest between the BJP and the SP-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) alliance as the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress did not contest the bypoll.

According to the Election Commission, there were six candidates in the fray from Mainpuri, the seat that fell vacant after the death of sitting MP and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav on October 10.

Who Is Dimple Yadav?

Dimple Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav's wife, has been fielded against BJP's Raghuraj Singh Shakya to retain the seat for the party.

Dimple has served as Lok Sabha MP twice from Kannauj as a Samajwadi Party candidate.

She had first contested the byelection in 2009 for the Lok Sabha constituency of Firozabad but lost to actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar. In 2012, she was elected unopposed from the Kannauj constituency to the Lok Sabha seat.

Dimple was the first woman from Uttar Pradesh to be elected unopposed in a Lok Sabha byelection. She retained the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat in the 2014 general election but lost the contest in 2019 to BJP's Subrat Pathak.

In addition to the byelections for the Manipuri Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh, byelections are underway in UP's assembly seats in Rampur Sadar and Khatauli, Rajasthan's Sardarshahar, Kurhani in Bihar, Padampur in Odisha, and Bhanupratappur in Chhattisgarh. 

Dimple's candidature from Mainpuri was seen as the SP's efforts to carry forward Mulayam Singh Yadav's legacy on the seat. Mainpuri has been considered an SP stronghold since 1996.

The byelection was held on December 5.