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All eyes on Mant seat in bypoll, acid test for Akhilesh

Samajwadi Party fields candidate from Jat community
Last Updated 26 May 2012, 20:32 IST

Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) state unit president Akhilesh Yadav, who steered his party to a spectacular victory at the recently concluded Assembly elections, will face his first electoral test post-victory at the forthcoming Assembly bypoll at Mant in Mathura district on June 12.

The bypoll has assumed an added significance as the seat was won by none other than Rashtriya Lok Dal leader and union civil aviation minister Ajit Singh’s son Jayant Chaudhary, who later resigned from there and preferred to keep his Lok Sabha seat of Mathura, which he had won in 2009 general elections.

While the bypoll result may not be a reflection of Akhilesh Yadav regime’s performance, but it would certainly test his popularity. 

 The SP’s performance in the last assembly bypoll was dismal to say the least. The party had finished eighth and its nominee had also lost his security deposit.

No wonder Akhilesh had fielded his close confidant and party’s youth wing national president Sanjay Lathar for the seat. Lathar is member of the powerful Jat community, which is the biggest single block in the constituency.

Almost all the top party leaders, including its supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh himself would be visiting the constituency to seek votes for Lathar.

For the RLD, the bypoll was a prestige issue. Losing the Jat dominated constituency’s seat could spell further trouble for Ajit Singh. The RLD has also taken the Jat factor into account while deciding its nominee, Yogesh Naubahar, a Jat, for the seat. The party is also banking on the support of the Congress. 

For the Bahajan Samaj Party, the bypoll is an opportunity to stage a comeback and prove its mettle in the state. “We are taking the bypoll very seriously,” said state BSP president Swami Prasad Maurya.

Former Congress leader, Shyam Sunder Sharma who is now contesting on the ticket of Trinamool Congress hopes to open his party’s account in UP.

SP to go solo in 2014 LS polls

Notwithstanding the recent display of bonhomie, Samajwadi Party on Saturday made it clear that there was no question of entering into any kind of understanding with the Congress in the 2014 general elections, reports DHNS from Lucknow.

Addressing a press conference here, SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said his party had only given outside support to the Congress-led UPA government. “We never aligned with the Congress,” he said. Stating that his party’s support to the UPA was ‘issued based’, Yadav made it clear that SP would go alone in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in UP.

The parties had been friendly at the recent UPA dinner and had raised hopes of a closer cooperation between Congress and SP. 
The SP has also given a call for a UP bandh on May 31 in protest against the hike in the price of petrol. 
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(Published 26 May 2012, 20:32 IST)

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