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High-profile campaign for Uttar Pradesh bypolls ends
Voting will take place on December 5 in Mainpuri Lok Sabha and Rampur Sadar and Khatauli assembly constituencies of Uttar Pradesh
Campaigning for the Mainpuri Lok Sabha bypoll as well as the Rampur Sadar and Khatauli assembly by-elections came to an end on Saturday.
Voting for all three seats will be held on December 5 and the results will be declared on December 8.
In Mainpuri, the stakes are high for both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP), the two main contestants.
The Samajwadi Party has fielded Dimple Yadav, party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife in Mainpuri.
The death of Mulayam Singh Yadav, fondly called netaji by his supporters, has necessitated the Mainpuri bypoll. Mulayam had won the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat five times. Dimple has repeatedly said on the campaign trail that this by-election is for netaji, and not her.
The BJP, which has never won the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, is looking to make inroads in the SP bastion by fielding two-time former MP Raghuraj Singh Shakya as its nominee.
During the campaign, chief minister Yogi Adityanath addressed two public meetings in Karhal on November 28 and in Mainpuri city on December 2.
Deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak also campaigned in Mainpuri.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav addressed a public meeting at Alipur Kheda in Bhongaon assembly segment of Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency on Saturday.
He also held a road show in Mainpuri city on the last day of campaigning.
For their part, BJP workers laid stress on mass contact and held street-corner meetings on the last day of the campaign.
A political patch-up between Akhilesh and his uncle Shivpal Yadav was the highlight of the SP’s campaign in Mainpuri.
“It would be known on December 8 if Raghuraj Singh Shakya would be elected MP for a third time or Dimple Yadav would be the first woman MP from Mainpuri,” said a voter in Mainpuri.
In Khatauli, RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary was camping to ensure victory of RLD-SP and ASP alliance candidate Madan Bhaiya against BJP’s Rajkumari Saini. Rajkumari is the wife of the party’s disqualified MLA, Vikram Saini, who was convicted by a court in the Muzaffarnagar riots case.
In Rampur, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad addressed an election rally in support of the alliance candidate Asim Raza who is a confidante of SP leader and former minister Azam Khan.
Khan is the main campaigner for Raza and two more cases were registered against him for using offensive language. He blamed the district administration and police for high-handedness against supporters of Samajwadi Party.
However, chief minister Yogi Adityanath said that those who use foul language face people’s ire.
The BJP is confident that after winning the Rampur by-election in June it will also emerge victorious in the citadel of Azam Khan from where he won the previous 10 assembly elections.
In Khatauli, the BJP’s claim of improved law and order was the major poll plank. State BJP president Bhupendra Chaudhary, Union minister Sanjeev Baliyan, deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak, chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi campaigned in support of the party candidate.
The BJP is projecting Vikram Saini’s conviction as his sacrifice for raising a voice for Hindutva. On the other hand, the rival RLD and SP are propagating the issue of ‘Bhaichara (communal harmony) among people, accusing the BJP of indulging in divisive politics.
