Mainpuri Bypoll: People Have United Against The 'Unity' In Yadav Clan, Says BJP's Raghuraj Shakya

He said that he stood with Shivpal five years ago when no one would side with him after he fell out with Akhilesh post a bitter power struggle hence it is wrong to call him selfish.

New Delhi: BJP leader from Mainpuri, Raghuraj Singh Shakya, noted that it is wrong to dub him 'selfish' as he joined BJP before Uttar Pradesh (UP) assembly elections when Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav were still together. Shakya was once a close aide of Shivpal however, he left the Pragatisheel Samajwadi party to join BJP this year.

He said that he stood with Shivpal five years ago when no one would side with him after he fell out with Akhilesh post a bitter power struggle.

Speaking to news agency PTI, the BJP leader said, "In 2017, when no one was siding with Shivpal Singh Yadav, it was Raghuraj Singh Shakya who firmly stood with him. In 2017, I did not get any ticket (for the assembly election), but I did not mind. But, now you have become one after leaving us."

Shakya appears to be responding to Shivpal's insult that he is "ambitious" and "selfish" in his remarks.

When questioned about the SP's claim that it will win the byelection by a wide majority now that Akhilesh and Shivpal had re-unified, Shakya said: "When they have united, people have also united. This will ensure that the BJP emerges victorious." The bypoll has been necessitated due to the death of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, and Mainpuri has long been a pocket borough of his family.

Political circles interpreted Shakya's nomination as the BJP candidate as an attempt by the saffron party to use his proximity to Shivpal, who up until that point had not declared his support for the SP candidate.

Shivpal then committed support to daughter-in-law Dimple, burying the hatchet with his nephew, indicating that the governing party's calculations were incorrect. Dimple Yadav will be competing with Shakya for the seat in Mainpuri.

According to poll observers, OBC Shakyas make up the majority of the approximately 17 lakh voters in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat after Yadavs.

Shakya, who will have the difficult challenge of opposing the SP candidate in the seat held by political heavyweight Mulayam Singh Yadav, denies the compassion factor that could be working in his opponent's favour and claims that voters have taken a position against "pariwarvad" (dynasticism).

He asserts that the saffron party will take over Mainpuri as it did in Azamgarh and Rampur.

When asked about whether emotions will reign supreme in this bypoll, especially after the death of Mulayam Singh, the BJP leader says, "This emotion is only among their people (SP workers). There is no such emotion among the people, and the people are not emotional towards them. If the public was emotional towards them, then they (SP leaders) would not have to move from one bylane to another and meet people. Why are they going from door-to-door now?"

Shakya expressed confidence in winning and said: "They (People of Mainpuri) are fed up of the terror unleashed by (Samajwadi Party) and the 'goonda raj' which was curbed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.... Besides Netaji's (Mulayam Singh Yadav) victory margin in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls was (only) over 90,000 votes".

"The public is against them (the SP), and the public very well knows that whenever the (Yadav) family has united, it has only done so to deceive them," he added, as quoted by PTI.

Voting in Mainpuri will be held on December 5, while the counting of votes will take place on December 8.

(With inputs from PTI)