Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday targeted Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav over dynasty politics, asking whether the Opposition party could not find any ‘Yadav’ candidate from outside his family.
“The SP claims to represent Yadavs. I want to tell you, Mulayam Singhji became the CM, then his son became the CM, and after his [Mulayam Singh Yadav’s] death, his daughter-in-law became the MP. This time, Akhilesh ji is contesting from Kannauj, his wife Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri, Aditya Yadav from Budaun, Akshay Yadav from Firozabad, and Dharmendra Yadav from Azamgarh. My simple question to Akhilesh Ji, don’t you find other ‘Yadavs’ from outside your family,” Mr. Shah asked, addressing a gathering in Mainpuri in support of the BJP candidate Jaiveer Singh.
In Mainpuri, a traditional bastion of the SP, the BJP candidate Jaiveer Singh is contesting against sitting MP Dimple Yadav. The Mainpuri seat is onsidered a citadel of the SP, which has won every parliamentary election from there since 1996. SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav represented the high-profile seat four times. In the 2022 bypoll held after his death, Ms. Yadav, won the seat by over 2,88,000 votes.
