Mainpuri Lok Sabha Seat: Will Dimple Retain ‘Mulayam Dadda’s’ Legacy In Yadav Family Bastion

The Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, which is among the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh is going to be one of the most keenly watched constituencies this year. A Yadav bastion, the seat has been traditionally held by the Samajwadi Party since 1996. This seat holds special value for the Samajwadi Party as well as UP’s ‘first family’ as this seat gave party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav entry to the Parliament.

Mainpuri That Churned UP Politics 

Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency’s electorate voted for the Yadav family when the SP fought its first Lok Sabha election in 1996. This was the seat that sent Mulayam Singh Yadav to the Lok Sabha for the first time and paved the way for him to become India’s 21st Defence Minister in the HD Devegowda Cabinet.

However, it is also known as the seat that symbolised the coming together of Mulayam Singh Yadav and his political opponent in the Congress and former Union minister Balram Singh Yadav. Once known for their intense cold war in rival camps within the Congress, Mulayam Singh Yadav and his collegemate Balram joined hands in December 1997. Mulayam had then said that Balram Singh Yadav was a “great friend” and the two would run SP like a “family”. 

It was a result of this “great friendship” that Mulayam vacated the Mainpuri seat for Balram and moved to Sambhal. Even for Balram Singh Yadav, the seat held special significance as he gained entry to the Lok Sabha from this constituency on a Congress ticket in 1984. Balram won the Mainpuri seat in 1998 and then again in 1999. 

However, the “great friendship” did not last long as Balram moved to the BJP, weaning away hundreds of leaders and workers from the Samajwadi Party, apparently after his son was denied an assembly poll ticket.

In the 2004 Lok Sabha election, Mulayam Singh won back the Mainpuri seat as he faced Balram in an electoral battle after 16 long years. His victory came with a margin of over 3.37 lakh votes, a record he broke 10 years later in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Balram managed to secure just 15% of the votes in 2004 and placed third behind the Bahujan Samaj Party’s Ashok Shakya.

Yadav Clan’s Record Run In Mainpuri

Since 2004, only a member of UP’s Yadav family has been able to win the Mainpuri seat. In fact, Mulayam’s relation with Mainpuri was such that he was affectionately called ‘dadda‘ by the electorate. Mulayam vacated the seat three months after his 2004 win when he became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. This led to a bypoll in Mainpuri, which was won by his nephew Dharmendra Yadav.

Mulayam again contested the seat in 2009 and won. In 2014, Mulayam broke all records in Mainpuri and won by a massive margin of 3.64 lakh votes against the BJP’s Shatrughan Singh Chauhan. However, he also contested the Azamgarh seat that year and won against BJP leader Ramakant Yadav. He decided to keep this and fielded his grandnephew Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, who won it by a massive margin of 3.21 lakh votes against the BJP’s Prem Singh Shakya. This was the first (and only) win for Tej Pratap, the son-in-law of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi. In the win, Tej Pratap created the record of winning the highest vote share in Mainpuri, trumping even MSY’s best of 64% in 2004.

In 2019, Mulayam returned to the Mainpuri seat and won a decisive victory against Shakya.

After Mulayam Singh Yadav’s death on October 10, 2022, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav decided to field his wife Dimple Yadav in the constituency. Mainpuri did not disappoint the Samajwadi Yadavs and sent her to the Parliament again after her 2019 loss to BJP’s Subrat Pathak in Kannauj.

This year, the SP has again fielded Dimple from the Mainpuri constituency.

The Mainpuri Lok Sabha region is composed of five assembly seats — Mainpuri, Karhal, Kishni (SC), and Bhongaon, in Mainpuri district and Jaswantnagar in Etawah district. In 2019, the constituency had 17.2 lakh voters. According to the 2011 census, the Mainpuri district is Hindu-dominated with the community comprising 93.48% of the total population.