Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party (SP) may field former Kannauj MP and Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple from the Rampur assembly constituency in the upcoming by-election. The seat fell vacant after SP MLA Azam Khan was elected to the Lok Sabha in May.
Talks are on within the party to field Dimple from Rampur, a seat that Azam won nine times, and the decision will be announced soon, said sources.
“Although the SP and the BSP have parted ways, we expect BSP to not field any candidate if Dimple contests from Rampur. We also expect the same from the Congress, else there could be a division of votes which might directly benefit the BJP,” said a senior SP leader.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has never won the East UP seat, but this time, it is hopeful with Jaya Prada. After she was defeated in the Lok Sabha elections by Azam Khan, Jaya Prada has been regularly visiting Rampur and preparing the ground for her contest.
Jaya Prada had won the Rampur Lok Sabha seat in 2004 and 2009 on a Samajwadi Party ticket before joining the BJP.
Khan has been the Rampur MLA since 1980 with the help of various political parties. After the SP was founded in 1992, Khan won the seat as a Samajwadi Party candidate.
Apart from the BJP, the Bahujan Samaj Party also has failed to open its account in Khan’s bastion.
Dimple Yadav began her career with a loss in Firozabad bypolls in 2009, but went on to win the Kannauj Lok Sabha bypolls unopposed in 2012 after the seat fell vacant as her husband Akhilesh became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Dimple retained the seat in 2014 general elections, but in May she lost to the BJP’s Subrat Pathak by margin of around 12,000 votes.
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