The stars seem to be favouring Dimple Yadav, wife of UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav who is now poised for a landslide victory in the Kannauj Lok Sabha byelection.
The BSP on Wednesday announced that it would not contest the Kannauj bypoll.
The BJP took a U-turn and announced its candidate for Kannauj but finally ended up with egg on its face when its candidate failed to file the nomination on Wednesday, which was the last day of nominations.
The BSP spokesman said that by fielding Ms Dimple Yadav, the Samajwadi Party has followed the tradition of nepotism. “There is an environment of anarchy and several welfare schemes have been closed. The Samajwadis lack political honesty and development, for them, is restricted to their own native district, Etawah. We want them to be fully exposed before the people and hence we have decided to opt out of the Kannauj byelection,” he said.
Meanwhile, the chinks in the BJP armour have been revealed once again on the Kannauj byelection issue.
Late on Tuesday night, BJP state president Laxmikant Bajpai issued a press statement saying that the party would not contest the Kannauj byelection and would concentrate on the local bodies’ elections.
On Wednesday afternoon, the party high command suddenly announced the candidature of Jagdev Singh Yadav for the Kannauj seat, leaving the state leadership completely bewildered.
However, Mr Yadav, who lives in Kanpur, could not reach Kannauj in time to file his nomination papers and since Wednesday was the last day of filing nominations, the BJP has been forced out of the electoral fray.
The drama over Kannauj has once again exposed the factionalism within the BJP and the lack of coordination between the central and state units of the party.
Though none of the leaders in Lucknow were willing to comment on the day’s drama, it was more than evident that the state leadership was “seething with rage” over the party high command’s turnaround.
Meanwhile, Ms Dimple Yadav now has only two opponent left in Kannauj — Dashrath Sankhwar of Sanyukta Samajwadi Dal and Sanju Katiyar. Both are likely to end up with only a few hundred votes, allowing Dimple to sweep the election with a enormous margin.