Lucknow: Kannauj, the perfume capital of the country, does not smell good right now. Traditionally, a Samajwadi bastion, the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat which has Dimple Yadav as its sitting MP, seems undecided about its choice in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Dimple Yadav had created a record of sorts when she got elected from Kannauj unopposed in 2012 when her husband Akhilesh Yadav vacated his seat after becoming the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister. She had earlier faced defeat in a by-election in Ferozabad in 2009. In 2014, however, Dimple Yadav won the seat with a narrow margin.
The BJP has fielded Subrat Pathak, who had lost to her in 2014. This time around, Pathak is using Dimple Yadav’s inaccessibility to the people of Kannauj to push his own case. “She is never available for the people of Kannauj. Many of them who travel to Lucknow are also unable to meet her.
“Dimple comes here rarely and that too for specific programmes. Today, people want their representative to be accessible to them and this is a major factor that is going against her,” says Ram Nagina Misra, a school teacher. The people of Kannauj admit that a great deal of development took place in the constituency when Akhilesh Yadav was in power.
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“We got roads, electricity and good water supply during the Samajwadi regime but there is no one to help us with issues related to police, etc. Dimple should have spent at least 10 to 15 days in her constituency every month,” says Raju Patel. Vivek Singh, a local BJP worker, informs that they have been working since 2014 and have reached out to every nook and corner of the constituency.
“When elections ended in 2014, we never stopped working for the people. The people know that they can depend on us in times of crisis. “It is certainly not going to be a cakewalk for Dimple Yadav this time,” he asserts. The BSP candidate in 2014 Nirmal Tiwari, who had got 1.27 lakh votes has now joined the BJP which explains the upbeat mood in the saffron camp.
What, however, is working in Dimple’s favour is the fact that this time, her party is in alliance with the BSP and she can hope to get the support of Dalits too. According to BJP estimates, the constituency has about five lakh upper caste votes. Lodhi Rajputs, traditional supporters of BJP, are about two lakh.
