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Samajwadi party's Dimple Yadav registered a magnificent victory by retaining the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat by a record margin of 2,88461 or 64.08 percent of polled votes, symbolically demonstrating that 'Mulayam ka jalwa qayam hai' in the family's pocket borough of Mainpuri where her father-in-law, departed founder and patriarch of Samajwadi party, Mulayam Singh Yadav was the sitting MP.
In the three by- polls in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi party- Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance won two seats of Mainpuri Lok Sabha and Khatauli Vidhan Sabha, in a straight fight with the BJP. Both the Congress and the BSP had stayed away from the by polls in Uttar Pradesh.
However, there was a significant development in Rampur where the lotus bloomed for the first time in the Muslim majority Rampur Sadar Vidhan Sabha seat. Here the BJP candidate Akash Saxena won by 33738 votes. He happens to be the main petitioner in the majority of cases against Samajwadi party's Mohammad Azam Khan. He defeated the Samajwadi party candidate Asim Raza, who is a close aide of Mohammad Azam Khan.
This is the first time that a non- Muslim has won from the Rampur Sadar seat since the first election in 1952. Barring a Congress victory for Afroz Ali Khan in 1996, Mohammad Azam Khan has continuously won from Rampur since 1980. In 2019 when Azam Khan opted for the Lok Sabha his wife Tazeen Fatima, briefly replaced him till he returned to the assembly once again earlier this year.
Charging the ruling party of not allowing the Samajwadi party voters to cast their vote, the SP candidate Asim Raza alleged that the ruling party had employed arm twisting tactics. Speaking to news persons he charged the police of capturing booths and not allowing genuine voters to reach the polling booths by putting up barricades to prevent the Muslim voters to cast their votes.
Strangely Rampur had registered a poor polling percentage of 33.83 percent this time, a sharp decline of 22.78 percent votes from the 56.61 percent recorded during the Vidhan Sabha election in February 2022. The Rampur by poll was necessitated by the disqualification of Mohammad Azam Khan by the court.
On the other hand, in Khatauli BJP candidate Rajkumari Saini, lost to Rashtriya Lok Dal's Madan Bhaiyya by a decisive margin of 22165 votes. She was favored by the saffron party to replace her husband, sitting MLA Vikram Singh Saini, who was recently disqualified by court for his involvement in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.
For mafia don-turned politician Madan Bhaiya, this is the fifth term in the UP Vidhan Sabha. He had first won from behind bars in 1989 as an independent candidate from Khekada, since abolished in the delimitation. He had lost the last three Vidhan Sabha elections of 2012, 2017 and 2022 from Loni.
It was not just a change of seat that managed to change his fortune. It was the energy that RLD President Jayant Chaudhury personally put in the campaign that swung the election in favour of the RLD candidate. The RLD-SP combined campaign brought this seat for the RLD taking its tally to 9 in the UP Vidhan Sabha.
However, with the loss of Rampur the total seats of the SP-RLD combine remains 111. Since the Vidhan Sabha election in February 2022, another partner Om Prakash Rajbhar led Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj party has broken away, taking away its six MLAs.
There was much more to celebrate for the Samajwadi party today as the rift between Uncle Shivpal Yadav and nephew and Samajwadi party president Akhilesh Yadav formally ended. Uncle Shivpal officially merged his Pragatisheel Samajwadi party with the Samajwadi party. He symbolically replaced his party flag with the SP flag on his car.
Political exigencies' following the death of 'netaji' Mulayam Singh Yadav has brought the uncle-nephew closer resulting in the formal merger of the two parties today. This brought about a wave of jubilation in the workers of the two parties who had been under a shadow of gloom since the death of the 'dhartiputra' in October this year.
The message sent loud and clear by Uttar Pradesh by poll results of Mainpuri and Khatauli is that there is no replacement for hard work on the ground. SP president Akhilesh Yadav had personally led wife Dimple Yadav's campaign in Mainpuri as the family borough and legacy was at stake.
According to party insiders, if a similar effort had been made by him in the Lok Sabha by polls in Rampur and Azamgarh a few months ago, the two sitting seats may not have been snatched away by the saffron party. Partner Om Prakash Rajbhar also may not have broken the alliance in disgust, charging Yadav of being too used to working from Ac rooms.
Wary of the police barricading the Muslim areas a Samajwadi party delegation led by the candidate Asim Raza had and sat on a dharna outside the Police Superintendent's office in Rampur on the eve of elections where they were beaten and chased away.
SP President Akhilesh Yadav as well as Mohd Azam Khan charged the district police of working under pressure of the ruling party to prevent the SP voters from voting. The low voting percentage and voters stopped from voting on frivolous grounds confirmed their hunch.
On December 6, the SP legislators had disrupted the Vidhan Sabha proceeding alleging the "murder of democracy" at the by-polls in Rampur. Charging the ruling party of irregularities during polling in Rampur the SP party chief whip Manoj Pandey had also demanded re-polling in Rampur.
The matter of beating of the SP workers and voters and barricading has been taken to the Supreme Court by a lawyer who was a witness of the police atrocities. Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud has described it as a serious matter worth listing. So the Rampur story is still developing.
