Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) continued to maintain its dominance in Mainpuri as its candidate Dimple Yadav defeated her nearest rival Raghuraj Singh Shakya of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by a mammoth margin of 2,88,461 votes in the by-polls for Lok Sabha seat on Thursday.Dimple received 6,18,120 votes (64.1 per cent), whereas 3,29,659 (32.2 per cent) votes were polled in favour of BJP's Shakya.
Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat had become a prestige issue for SP as the party has never lost any election on this seat since 1996 and is considered to be the party's bastion.Moreover, the by-poll on this seat was necessitated following the demise of SP founder, patriarch and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav. In fact, Mulayam was elected MP from Mainpuri four times.
During the entire election campaign, during which senior SP leaders camped in Mainpuri to ensure Dimple's victory, the party sought votes in the name of Mulayam stating that it will be a real tribute to 'Netaji'.
To ensure Dimple's victory, Akhilesh even patched up with his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav, who is MLA from Jaswant Nagar seat, which falls under Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency.On the other hand after winning by-polls for Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats held earlier this year, BJP left no stone unturned to breach another fort of SP.
Besides, senior BJP leaders, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held two rallies to muster support for party candidate Raghuraj Singh Shakya.(UNI)
