Mainpuri by-poll: Shakya files papers, BJP exudes confidence about win
AGRA: Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) candidate for Mainpuri by-poll Raghuraj Singh Shakya filed his nomination on Wednesday after offering tributes at the memorial of Samajwadi Party patriarch late Mulayam Singh Yadav in Saifai village of Etawah district.
After Shakya filed his papers, deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Keshav Prasad Maurya addressed a party workers’ meet and claimed that the BJP, which won the by-election in Azamgarh and Rampur, would also win the Mainpuri by-election to increase its tally.
Maurya said that now BJP had 66 MPs from Uttar Pradesh after victory in Rampur and Azamgarh by- polls and this tally would increase to 67 after victory in Mainpuri by-election.
State BJP president Bhupendra Singh claimed that Uttar Pradesh was now a ‘citadel’ of the BJP and lotus would bloom in Mainpuri considered to be a stronghold of the Samajwadi
Party.
Meanwhile, the Mainpuri by-election seems to be revolving around Mulayam Singh Yadav’s name, though he is no more. To note, MSY was a fivetime MP from Mainpuri.
On Monday, SP candidate Dimple Yadav along with SP president Akhilesh Yadav had sought blessings at the memorial of Netaji and reiterated to walk on his footprints.
BJP candidate Raghuraj Singh Shakya had been MP twice in 1999 and 2004 and MLA once in 2012 from Etawah as Samajwadi Party candidate before joining the BJP.
He had distanced himself from Akhilesh Yadav before leaving Samajwadi Party and chose Shivpal Yadav whom he called his ‘political guru’. On Wednesday too, he said he had blessings from Shivpal.
Throughout the day, all eyes were on Shivpal Yadav who was in Mainpuri. Yadav maintained a distance from media and returned to Saifai later in day.
Shivpal has been named as one of the star campaigners for
Samajwadi Party for this by - election in Mainpuri from where Dimple Yadav, former MP and daughter-in -law of late Mulayam Singh Yadav is party candidate.
Shivpal, the estranged uncle of SP president Akhilesh Yadav, is MLA from Jaswant Nagar, one of the five assembly constituencies of Mainpuri parliamentary constituency bound for by- poll after the death of Mulayam Singh Yadav, the sitting MP, on October 10 this year.