LUCKNOW: If Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh were the main acts Thursday, bypolls spread across five states made for captivating side-battles, especially in UP’s Mainpuri LS and Rampur and Khatauli assembly seats as well as Kurhani in Bihar.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple won Mainpuri by a margin of over 2.8 lakh votes, a feat even party patriarch and her father-in-law Mulayam Singh Yadav had never achieved in the constituency that had elected him every time since 2004.
BJP’s Raghuraj Singh Shakya stood no chance against the ‘MSY wave’, a sympathy factor spawned by the politician’s death on October 10. SP had turned the contest as a “tribute” to the party founder, a move that paid well.
