Yadav Dynasty In The Poll Fray (image: facebook.com/yadavakhilesh ; dimpleyadav; SansadDharmendraYadav; AkshayYadavOffiicial;
In the Lok Sabha polls, the Samajwadi Party (SP) is contesting in 62 of the states 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. In order to maintain Muslim-Yadav vote base, and to expand influence to non-Yadav OBCs, SP has only given five seats to Yadav community. Notably, all these are from SP patriarch late Mulayam Singh Yadav”s family – Akhilesh Yadav from Kannauj, Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri, Dharmendra Yadav from Azamgarh, Akshay Yadav from Firozabad, and Aditya Yadav from Badaun.
Akhilesh Yadav From Kannauj
SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav is returning to Lok Sabha battle after a long time. In 2022, Yadav stepped down from his Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat and maintained Karhal assembly seat. Now, he has returned to the electoral front to regain Kannauj, a family fortress. His father and SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav kept it as his home turf before. The party held a dominion over the constituency for five consecutive terms, from 1998 to 2019. The spell of SP’s success broke in the 2019 general elections when the BJP candidate Subrat Pathak emerged winner by defeating Dimple Yadav by a narrow margin of 12,353 votes. Kannauj holds important for Akhilesh Yadav since he made his political debut from the parliamentary seat in 2000. He is pitted against sitting BJP MP Subrat Pathak and BSP candidate Imran Bin Zafar.
Dimple Yadav From Mainpuri
Mainpuri, similar to Kannauj, holds a special place in SP and Yadav family. Mulayam Singh Yadav won the seat for the first time in 1996 and since then it has been a stronghold of the party. In 2019 Lok Sabha election, Mulam Singh Yadav won the seat by defeating BJP candidate Prem Singh Shakya by a margin of 94,000 votes. After his demise, a by-poll was conducted in 2022, wherein Yadav’s daughter-in-law (Akhilesh Yadav’s wife) Dimple Yadav secured victory by garnering over 6 lakh votes. In the 2024 election, as Dimple Yadav fights to retain the seat, BJP’s Jaiveer Singh and BSP’s Shiv Prasad Yadav are the other candidates in the fray.
Dharmendra Yadav From Azamgarh
Dharmendra Yadav is a cousin of Akhilesh Yadav. His father Abhay Ram Yadav is the younger brother of Mulayam Singh Yadav and elder brother of Shivpal Singh Yadav. In 2019 elections, Akhilesh Yadav won Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat by garnering over 6 lakh votes. However, in 2022 a by-poll contested in the constituency when SP chief vacated the seat for Karhal assembly seat, and in the election Bhojpuri actor and BJP candidate Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua defeated Dharmendra Yadav. In the 2024 Elections, Azamgarh constituency has repeated the same contest, where Dharmendra Yadav is facing tough challenge to regain SP stronghold as Nirahua’s popularity, Modi factor, and BJP”s extensive campaigning pose as threats. Mashhod Sabeeha Ansari is the BSP candidate in Azamgarh.
Akshay Yadav From Firozabad
Akshay Yadav is the son of SP secretary general Ram Gopal Yadav and nephew of Mulayam Singh Yadav. He contested his debut polls from Firozabad in 2014 and won. However, in 2019 elections, he failed to retain the seat as he lost the seat to BJP candidate Dr Chandra Sen Jadon by a margin of 28781 votes. Besides, Shiv Pal Singh Yadav, another member belongs to Yadav family contested from Firozabad with his newly-formed Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohiya) and gathered around 92,000 votes. Akshay Yadav aims to win back the constituency this time. He is pitted against BJP candidate Vishwadeep Singh and BSP candidate Chowdhary Basheer.
Aditya Yadav From Badaun
Aditya Yadav is making his first entry to poll from Badaun Lok Sabha constituency. He is the son of Mulayam Singh’s brother and Jaswantnagar MLA Shivpal Singh Yadav. Aditya Yadav is entrusted with the responsibility to reclaim the SP stronghold, Badaun constituency. In 2019 BJP candidate Dr Sanghmitra Maurya won the seat by defeating SP’s Dharmendra Yadav by a margin of 18454 votes. The BJP won the seat after a break of six terms. Aditya’s candidacy was announced considering that a youth need to be contested from the constituency. He is pitted against BJP’s Durvijay Singh Shakya and BSP’s Muslim Khan.
In 2019 elections, the SP fielded 37 seats in alliance with Mayawati’s BSP and Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), and among them it contested 10 Yadav candidates. In the polls, five Yadav family members were in the poll race. Among them, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav won from Mainpuri, and Azamgarh respectively; the lost candidates include Dimple from Kannauj, Dharmendra from Badaun, and Akshay from Firozabad. The other SP candidates fielded from Etah, Jhansi, Faizabad, Pulpur, and Varanasi were also lost.
In 2014, it contested 78 seats and nominated 12 Yadav candidates. Among them five seats are won by Yadav dynasty members. When Mulayam Singh won from both Mainpuri and Azamgarh constituencies, Dimple, Dharmendra, and Akshay won Kannauj, Badaun, and Firozabad, respectively.
