UP bypolls: SP leading in Mainpuri, Rampur Sadar and RLD in Khatauli

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party candidate Dimple Yadav has taken a comfortable lead in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency, while nominees of the RLD and the SP are ahead in the Khatauli and the Rampur Sadar seats respectively, according to trends for the bypolls in Uttar Pradesh.

While Yadav has taken a lead of over 35,574 votes over her nearest rival BJP candidate Raghuraj Singh Shakya, RLD's Madan Bhaiya is leading by over 1,387 votes in Khatauli over BJP's Rajkumar Saini, the Election Commission website showed.

Samajwadi Party candidate Asim Raja is leading from Rampur Sadar over BJP's Akash Saxena by a margin of 3,224 votes. Bypolls for these seats were held on December 5.

The Mainpuri parliamentary constituency, which fell vacant after the death of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, had registered 54.01 per cent voting.
The Khatauli assembly segment had recorded 56.46 per cent polling on December 5 while Rampur Sadar had seen a low 33 per cent.

Bypoll in Rampur Sadar and Khatauli were necessitated due to the disqualification of SP MLA Azam Khan and BJP MLA Vikram Singh Saini following their conviction by separate courts in different matters.

The bypolls are witnessing a direct contest between the ruling BJP and the opposition Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) alliance. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress are not in the frays.

Following defeats in Azamgarh and the Rampur Lok Sabha bypoll, considered the SP's bastions, the Mainpuri parliamentary and the Rampur and Khatauli assembly by-elections have become important for the Akhilesh Yadav-led party and his ally RLD.
Though the outcome of the bypolls' would not make much difference to the government at the Centre as well as in Uttar Pradesh as the BJP has a comfortable majority at both the places, a win would give psychological advantage to the winner in the run-up to the 2024 general election.