New Delhi: Leader of the Samajwadi Party, Dimple Yadav, claims on Sunday that the BJP-led administration will crack down on local party leaders ahead of the Mainpuri by-election, and advised them to "not sleep at their homes" the night before voting. She stated that the SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav worked for the development of the Mainpuri constituency in Uttar Pradesh and that the party is going to the people with this reality in the upcoming bypoll here. Dimple Yadav, the wife of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, has been nominated for the seat previously held by party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.


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Mainpuri voters will go to the polls on December 5, and the votes will be counted on December 8. "I would like to tell my young friends and SP leaders that the administration will act tough on you on December 4. Do not sleep in your homes on December 4, so that on December 5, nobody can even touch you. "You go and cast your votes, and on December 6, the administration will disappear from here," she said at an election meeting in Ahirava village, part of the Bhogaon assembly segment.


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Dimple Yadav to women voters


She also urged women to vote for the party, saying "the administration cannot use force on you. You are the woman in power and you can fight. You should go and cast your vote." "An elderly person told me that it is the administration which is contesting the bypoll. I told her on one hand, there is the administration which is contesting the elections, on the other, the people of Mainpuri are contesting the bypoll for 'Netaji. "This is not my election. This is your (people's) election and that of our respected 'Netaji'. I am sure that Mainpuri will honour and pay tributes (to 'Netaji')," she said.



An SP delegation also met the Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral officer (CEO) and demanded the removal of the Mainpuri District Magistrate and Senior Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) from election work, alleging that they were misusing their administrative power.


Pressure on village heads


The SP leaders alleged that DM Avinash Kumar Rai and SSP Jai Prakash Singh are putting pressure on village heads, blockheads, district panchayat members and others to vote for the BJP in the Mainpuri bypoll. They said a free and fair election in Mainpuri was not possible till these officials remained in their posts. "It is a reality that this area (Mainpuri) has been the area of 'Netaji'. You cannot cover this reality. This is the fact and reality, and we are going to the public with this (reality)," she told PTI on the sidelines of her election meeting.


Asked how she views this bypoll, she said, "People of Mainpuri know that 'Netaji' carried out development projects here and people will honour him in the upcoming bypoll." Asked whether the SP's first family reunited because of the polls and may again part ways later, she said, "Let us not speculate about the family. Let us work at the ground level on matters related to the public." Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) president Shivpal Singh Yadav had recently said it was a phone call from "daughter-in-law" Dimple Yadav that prompted him to campaign for her for the upcoming Mainpuri bypoll.


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Amid a deteriorating relationship with nephew Akhilesh Yadav, the PSPL chief agreed to campaign for the SP chief's wife in the upcoming bypoll. The Mainpuri parliamentary constituency has five assembly segments -- Mainpuri, Bhogaon, Kishni, Karhal and Jaswant Nagar. In the 2022 assembly elections, the SP won the Karhal, Kishni and Jaswant Nagar seats, while the BJP won the Mainpuri and the Bhogaon seats. Akhilesh Yadav's Karhal assembly seat is part of the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency and so is Jaswant Nagar, which is represented by Shivpal Yadav. Addressing the gathering, Dimple said, "This is the first bypoll when 'Netaji' is not among us. 'Netaji' had an emotional relationship with the people of the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency, and people from here resided in his heart.


(With agencies inputs)