Mainpuri bypolls: Ram Gopal exudes confidence says `Dimple Yadav will win with three times more votes than Mulayam Singh Yadav`

Mainpuri bypolls: Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav alleged, `Police-admin are manipulating. EC had directed that deployment for election duties be randomised. But when polling parties arrived, around 2000 of the staff were stopped and held back as reserves as they had Yadav surname. They forget that not only Yadavs but everyone votes for SP.`

Mainpuri (Uttar Pradesh): Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders, including party MP Ram Gopal Yadav, thronged to cast their votes at the high-octane Mainpuri Lok Sabha bypolls on Mornday morning, claiming the party candidate, Dimple Yadav, will win with "three times more votes" than what Mulayam Singh Yadav garnered. After casting his vote in Etawah`s Saifai, Ram Gopal Yadav told mediapersons, "Dimple Yadav (party`s candidate for the by-election) will win with three times more votes than what Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) used to get." Later, Akhilesh Yadav and Dimple Yadav also cast their votes in Saifai.

Ram Gopal Yadav alleged that the BJP "goons" had come to the powerhouse of Mainpuri and pushed the SP`s agents, adding "In Mainpuri, they weren`t allowing agents at booths 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146. We spoke to Returning Officer, I`ll find out if it was later allowed. Similarly, BJP goons came to a powerhouse of Mainpuri in an inebriated state and pushed our agent out. The police and administration are of no help."

Yadav further alleged, "Police-admin are manipulating. EC had directed that deployment for election duties be randomised. But when polling parties arrived, around 2000 of the staff were stopped and held back as reserves as they had Yadav surname. They forget that not only Yadavs but everyone votes for SP." 

The SP leader alleged. "They don`t even allow the casting of votes in Rampur. The beating up of people started yesterday. SSP there is the one who was removed from Firozabad on my complaint during polls. This SSP was there the last time too and even now. There is nobody to listen but the public is supreme."

Samajwadi Party patron Late Mulayam Singh Yadav`s brother Abhay Ram Yadav cast his vote at Abhinav Vidyalaya in Saifai, Etawah, and said that there is no competition with any political party, adding "SP is going to win by a huge margin. There is no competition with any other political party." 

Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged that police are trying to prevent voters from casting votes in the by-polls and even resorting to lathicharge in Rampur. 

Akhilesh Yadav told reporters, "I don`t know on whose orders the administration is working during elections. What briefing has been given? Complaints are coming continuously since morning. Police is not allowing people to cast votes." 

He alleged police had been briefed that votes should not go to the Samajwadi Party, adding "There are videos that show that police are stopping people to vote in Rampur. They show the police is doing checking ids of people. So what are Election Commission guidelines? Police is doing lathi charge that is visible in photos that are coming from Rampur." 

"In Mainpuri also, the police is trying to stop voting. BJP is given the freedom to even distribute liquor," the SP chief alleged.

Meanwhile, Shivpal Singh Yadav of PSPL told ANI, "Administrative pressure so far, our workers were attacked. I alerted them last night to not get caught by Police, reach booths at 7 am and facilitate voting. People loved Netaji (Mulayam Yadav). They'll make Dimple win by a huge margin."

Notably, the party has fielded his daughter-in-law and wife of Akhilesh Yadav, Dimple Yadav. She is pitted against BJP`s former MP Raghuraj Singh Shakya. Polling in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seath was mandated following the demise of the sitting MP and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Mulayam Singh Yadav. 

(With ANI Inputs)