Mulayam's political clan sweats to save family bastion of Mainpuri

It's a do or die battle not only for Akhilesh but the political reputation of the entire Mulayam family is also at stake, emarked a senior SP leader

The entire political clan, the biggest in the country, of Samajwadi Party (SP) founder Mulayam Singh Yadav has been sweating hard to save the family bastion of Mainpuri, where a by-poll to the Lok Sabha seat is slated for December 5.

SP President Akhilesh Yadav, his wife Dimple Yadav, who is the party nominee from the seat, which fell vacant after Mulayam's death, Akhilesh's cousins and uncles have all been extensively campaigning in the constituency seeking support of the electorate in the name of Mulayam, who had represented the seat several times in the Lok Sabha.

According to the SP leaders, Akhilesh and other members of the family do not want to lose their traditional Mainpuri seat after losing their strongholds of Azamgarh and Rampur LS seats in the recently held by-polls to the BJP.

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In fact such was the desperation among Mulayam's political family that Akhilesh and his estranged uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav, who did not see eye to eye after the latter was expelled from the party by the former, agreed to bury the hatchet. .

Interestingly, Akhilesh had chosen not to campaign at Azamgarh seat, which had fallen vacant after he resigned from there following his election to the state assembly in the March 2022 assembly polls, and Rampur from where senior SP leader Azam Khan was the MP.

Akhilesh had invited flak from the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar with whom he had an alliance in the March assembly polls for not campaigning in Azamgarh and Rampur. ''Elections can not be won by sitting in AC rooms,'' Rajbhar had then remarked sarcastically, apparently referring to Akhilesh.

''It's a do or die battle not only for Akhilesh but the political reputation of the entire Mulayam family is also at stake....a drubbing in Mainpuri could well be taken as a signal that the family is losing its clout even in the Yadav land,'' remarked a senior SP leader while speaking to DH here.