The Budaun Lok Sabha constituency is one of the key seats for the first family of the Samajwadi Party. The SP has fielded Aditya Yadav, son of Shivpal Singh Yadav, the uncle of party chief Akhilesh Yadav, from Budaun.
The SP had earlier fielded former Member of Parliament Dharmendra Yadav, cousin of Akhilesh Yadav, from Budaun but later shifted him to Azamgarh, and announced to field Shivpal Yadav from there. However, the SP finally announced that it would field Shivpal Yadav’s son Aditya to contest the Budaun seat. Shivpal Yadav was reluctant to contest the election from Budaun and had demanded the ticket for the seat for his son.
According to sources in the SP, Akhilesh Yadav appears to have acceded to the demand of uncle to end the turf war in the family. Moreover, the sources said, “It is a quid pro quo deal. Akhilesh Yadav, by acceding to the demand of his uncle for nominating his son for Budaun Lok Sabha seat, has ensured the support of Shivpal Yadav in Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency.”
Dimple Yadav, wife of Akhilesh Yadav, is the SP candidate from Mainpuri. Shivpal Yadav had a key role in her victory in the bypoll to Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat in November 2022.
Budaun is a crucial Lok Sabha seat in western UP, with sizable votes of Yadavs and Muslims – the SP’s core vote bank. Its population comprises around 40 per cent Yadavs, 20 per cent Muslims, 20 per cent non-Yadav Other Backward Classes and around 20 per cent upper castes and Dalits combined.
Budaun will go to polls in the third phase on May 7. The nomination process began on April 12 and ended on April 19. The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded first-timer Durvijay Singh Shakya, the party’s Braj unit chief, from Budaun.
The SP leadership says the decision to field Aditya, 35, for his election debut was taken by Shivpal Yadav to mark his son’s entry into active politics.
“Which father doesn’t want to help his son establish himself in his profession? A doctor would want his son to be a doctor, an engineer would want his son to be an engineer. The same is for politicians. If Shivpal ji has convinced the party leadership to replace him with his son, then what is wrong with it?” asked a senior SP leader.
Several members of the Yadav clan are in the fray in the Lok Sabha polls in UP. Dharmendra Yadav is contesting from Azamgarh. Akhilesh’s wife and sitting MP Dimple Yadav is contesting from Mainpuri, while senior SP leader and uncle of Akhilesh Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav’s son Akshay is the party candidate from Firozabad. So far, there is no clarity whether Akhilesh will himself contest the Lok Sabha polls, although there is speculation that he will contest from Kannauj.
While all other younger members of the Yadav clan have already made their electoral debuts in the past, Aditya was not given a chance till now. Akshay was elected an MP from Firozabad in 2009. Mulayam Sing Yadav’s grandnephew Tej Pratap Yadav had won the Lok Sabha bypoll in 2014 from Mainpuri.
In 2019, the Budaun Lok Sabha seat was won by the BJP when Sanghmitra Maurya, daughter of Swami Prasad Maurya (then in BJP) won the seat, defeating Dharmendra Yadav by 18,454 votes.
Dharmendra had managed to win the seat in 2014 amid the Narendra Modi wave by 1.66 lakh votes, defeating the BJP’s Vagish Pathak, indicating the SP’s strong presence in the constituency.
Shivpal Yadav’s grip over the SP cadre is something that several party leaders laud. “He has a touch of Netaji (Mulayam). While Akhilesh ji has everyone’s support, Shivpal ji has the magic touch that many associate with the late Mulayam Singh Yadav,” said a SP leader.
SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said, “Shivpal’s role will be ‘bigger’ because of his stature and he is likely to campaign across the state'.”
With Shivpal Yadav stepping aside for his son in Budaun, it will be interesting to see whether the SP wrests its erstwhile bastion, or whether the move backfires for both of them.
