This bahu of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family all set to be re-elected as Saifai block pramukh

For nearly two-and-a-half decades, only members from Mulayam’s family have held the post of block pramukh in Saifai

Samajwadi Party (SP) founder and chief patron Mulayam Singh Yadav’s niece-in-law Mridula Yadav is all set to be re-elected the Saifai block pramukh. Saifai is the Yadav family’s ancestral village in Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh.

Samajwadi Party founder and chief patron Mulayam Singh Yadav’s niece-in-law Mridula Yadav after filing her nomination papers for the Saifai block pramukh’s post on Thursday. She was accompanied by her daughter-in-law Raj Laxmi Yadav (former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s daughter) after the nomination. (Photo courtesy Sughar Singh ‘Saifai’)

Mridula, the mother of SP’s former Mainpuri MP Tej Pratap Yadav, is the sitting block pramukh of Saifai. She filed her nomination papers (in two sets) before election officers Ashok Gupta and Prabhat Rai in the presence of her daughter-in-law Raj Laxmi Yadav (former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s daughter) and former SP MP from Badaun Dharmendra Yadav on Thursday.

She was the only candidate who filed the nomination papers on the last day, said a district officer.

“Tomorrow (Friday) is the date for the withdrawal of nominations. She is likely to be declared (elected) unopposed after that,” said the officer.

Mridula was elected Saifai block pramukh for the first time in 2015. For nearly two-and-a-half decades, only members from Mulayam’s family have held the post.

Saifai got the status of a development block in 1995. Mulayam’s nephew and Mridula’s late husband Ranvir Singh was the Saifai block pramukh from 1995 till his death in 2002. The late Ranvir Singh was the son of Mulayam’s elder brother Ratan Singh. Thereafter, Dharmendra Yadav became the block pramukh before he was elected MP in 2004. After Dharmendra, Tej Pratap Yadav began his political career as the Saifai block pramukh before he was elected the Mainpuri MP in 2014. When Tej Pratap quit the seat, Mridula became Saifai block pramukh, the first woman to hold the post in Saifai.

The block pramukh polls in UP are scheduled on July 10. It’s an indirect election in which the BDC (block development council) members, who were elected in the direct panchayat polls held in April, vote to choose the respective block pramukhs.