'Akhilesh Yadav will take 10 lives to be like his father': BJP jibes ahead of key bypoll

Firing a salvo at Akhilesh Yadav ahead of the Mainpuri bypoll, Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya quipped that it will take another 10 lives for the SP chief to become like his father Mulayam Singh Yadav. Speaking to the media on Sunday, he asserted that this election would remind people about the purported misgovernance during Akhilesh Yadav's tenure as the Chief Minister from 2012 to 2017. For this by-election, BJP has pitted Raghuraj Singh Shakya, who has served as an SP MP and MLA in the past, against Dimple Yadav. 

Keshav Prasad Maurya stated, "We will always respect him. Akhilesh Yadav removed his father from the president's chair and occupied it himself. He says that it is Netaji's election. If Netaji would have been alive, this election wouldn't have happened. This election is not for Netaji, but a reminder of Akhilesh's misgovernance. It is a reminder of how a booth-level worker was murdered under the protection of Akhilesh Yadav. It is about taking revenge for the way in which democracy was murdered by capturing the polling booths in Mainpuri. When someone goes in front of the EVM machine, people get scared." 

Mainpuri bypoll

The by-election to the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat was necessitated by the demise of SP patriarch and former UP CM Mulayam Singh Yadav. SP has won 8 successive elections from this constituency since 1996. In the previous election, Yadav defeated BJP's Prem Singh Shakya by 94,389 votes. On November 14, Dimple Yadav filed her nomination for this seat. While Akhilesh Yadav's wife represented Kannauj from 2012 till 2019, she suffered a shock defeat to BJP's Subrat Pathak in this seat during the last General election. 

Addressing a press conference, Akhilesh Yadav opined, "It will be a true tribute to Netaji if the people of Mainpuri vote for Samajwadi Party with a majority". As BJP successfully breached SP's citadels of Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats recently, it is hoping to do the same in Mainpuri. In Uttar Pradesh, a by-election is also scheduled in the Khatauli and Rampur Assembly seats which were vacated owing to the conviction of BJP's Vikram Singh Saini and senior SP leader Azam Khan respectively. The polling will take place on December 5 whereas the votes shall be counted on December 8.