After success in recent UP bypolls; Akhilesh-Maya eye Kairana LS constituency

 Apparently buoyed by the success of their ''experiment'' in Gorakhpur and Phulpur, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati have set their eyes on the upcoming by-poll in Kairana Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district.

Although the date for the polling has not yet been announced by the Election Commission (EC), where polling is necessitated after the death of BJP leader Hukum Singh in February this year, the two parties had already initiated talks to forge an understanding.

SP leaders here said that there is a possibility that some kind of electoral arrangement would be achieved in Kairana in the next few days.

Hukum Singh won the seat in 2014 Lok Sabha polls by over 2.35 lakh votes. Singh had secured around 5.65 lakh votes while his nearest SP rival Nahid Hasan had secured around 3.29 lakh votes.

BSP nominee Kanwar Hasan and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) candidate Kartar Singh Bhadana had secured 1.60 lakh and 42 thousand votes respectively.

In 2014 Singh had secured 20 thousand more than the combined votes of SP, BSP and RLD.

Three years later, however, the BJP's votes in the five assembly segments in Kairana Lok Sabha constituency declined to 4.32 lakh while the combined votes of the opposition parties went up by 5.59 lakh.

''We can wrest the seat from BJP if we contest in alliance,'' said a senior SP leader here while speaking to DH.

BJP is likely to field Singh's daughter Mriganka Singh in the hope that the sympathy factor would work in her favour.