Wearing a rudraksha necklace and a light cotton sari, Dimple Yadav is the cynosure of all eyes in her election campaign in Uttar Pradesh’s Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency. Men and women alike crowd the stage to see “Dimple Bhabhi” and “Netaji Ki Bahu” when she arrives at meetings. The Mainpuri MP hence makes it a point to stand on the stage when speaking to let the audience see her in Yadav-land.
News18 travelled with Dimple on her campaign trail in rural Mainpuri on Friday and she insisted on one thing in the interview — that jobs and unemployment were the major issues in this election and not anything else. Asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mangalsutra comment and accusations of the opposition’s largesse to Muslims, Dimple termed it a distraction.
“I think it is a very sad situation of the country that such things (mangalsutra and Muslims) are being said by someone who is at the top of the BJP leadership and someone who is at the top post of the country. This is unfortunate for the country that divisive politics is being used and the whole world knows now that whenever elections come then only such things are said to influence people and take their attention away from the major issues so that they get distracted. I feel that 10 years of the Modi government and seven years of the Yogi government have caused inflation and unemployment in the country, and women are no longer safe. People are understating all this,” the Samajwadi Party leader told News18.
Dimple won the 2022 Lok Sabha bypoll from Mainpuri by a big margin of 2.9 lakh votes after her father-in-law and longtime area MP Mulayam Singh Yadav passed away. She began her political innings in 2012 after winning unopposed from the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat and again in 2014 but lost in the 2019 polls by 12,000 votes.
SP supporters in Mainpuri say she will break Mulayam’s record winning margin of around 3.5 lakh votes this time. BJP’s Uttar Pradesh minister Jaiveer Singh is her main rival.
Polling in Mainpuri will be held in the third round of the ongoing seven-phase Lok Sabha elections on May 7.
Dimple said that it was her husband and SP national president Akhilesh Yadav’s decision to contest from Kannauj. “The people wanted him to contest from there. That is why he has filed his nomination. This has boosted the morale of our party workers. We will win the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat by a big margin,” she told News18 a day after Akhilesh filed his nomination from Kannauj. SP supporters say “Akhilesh Bhaiya” will exact revenge for “Dimple Bhabhi’s” loss from Kannauj in 2019.
But does she feel the pressure of the family’s political legacy? “There is no pressure as there has always been a family relationship with the people of Mainpuri. I think the love of the people here for me is only increasing. The Mainpuri Lok Sabha and assembly seats have always been known for Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) and will always be known by his name,” she told News18 amid her rallies.
Dimple told the crowds that the Constitution would be changed to scrap reservation and they wouldn’t be able to vote the next time if the BJP won. “There is a politics of dabav (pressure) right now which is not right for democracy,” she said when asked why she was telling the crowd of such apprehensions. “This politics of pressure is being used on people in all communities, not just one community. Hence I feel this is the right occasion and chance to save democracy and the Constitution and everyone is coming together for that.”
She keeps raising the issue of jobs and unemployment in her campaign speeches. “Abroad if the governments do not come up true to their promises, governments there resign. I feel that at a time when governments should resign, this is the first government which makes false promises and then brings new promises and brings in new issues to distract the people from real issues,” the SP leader said. Her rallies are well-attended by women to whom Dimple says that they are not getting rations like sugar and oil which they used to get earlier.
Dimple attempts to wear her political weight lightly as she obliges one and all for selfies and reminds people to stay true to Mulayam Singh Yadav’s work for them for over 25 years as an MP. With Akhilesh Yadav and Dimple Yadav both in the fight now from the family bastions of Kannauj and Mainpuri, SP is hoping to regain the Yadav-land of UP from the BJP. “We will win very well this time. You will see,” Dimple told News18 at the end of a long day of campaigning in which she did eight public meetings.
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