Apparently seeking to exploit the 'rift' within the Samajwadi Party (SP) patron Mulayam Singh Yadav's family, the BJP has fielded Raghuraj Singh Shakya, considered to be close to SP president Akhilesh Yadav's estranged uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav, from the SP bastion of Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency where a bypoll is slated for December 5.
Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav is the SP candidate from the seat which fell vacant after the death of Mulayam, the sitting MP from Mainpuri, last month.
Shakya, who had left the SP in 2017 after Shivpal was expelled from the party by Akhilesh, had joined the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (PSP) formed by Shivpal. He resigned from the PSP days before the March 2022 Assembly polls in UP and joined the BJP.
The decision to field Shakya from Mainpuri appeared to be a well thought out strategy by the BJP to take advantage of the perceived rift between Mulayam's political clan and Shivpal, indicating that he was not on the same page as Akhilesh on the decision to field Dimple Yadav from the seat. Shivpal was not present when Dimple had filed her nomination papers from the seat on Monday.
Interestingly, Shivpal was an MLA from Jaswant Nagar seat which formed part of the Mainpuri LS seat. In the 2019 LS polls, Mulayam had secured a big lead over his BJP rival in the Jaswant Nagar constituency.
Although Akhilesh exuded confidence that Dimple would win by a ''record margin'', SP sources said that the contest could be 'tough' if Shivpal lent support to Shakya or even remained neutral.
The Mainpuri contest is a prestige battle for Akhilesh, especially after his party lost the Azamgarh LS seat vacated by himself to the BJP recently. A defeat in Mainpuri might prove to be a huge setback for Akhilesh and his leadership might be challenged by the likes of Shivpal and others.