Lok Sabha Elections Phase 3 polling tomorrow: High-stakes battle in Samajwadi Party bastions for 3 Yadav family members

Ten seats of Uttar Pradesh will vote among the 93 parliamentary constituencies in of Lok Sabha Elections 2024 on May 7. The high-pitched campaign on these seats ended on Sunday evening.  

The seats in UP going to polls include Sambhal, Hathras, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Badaun, Bareilly and Aonla. The B(BJP) had won eight of these seats in 2019. Mainpuri and Sambhal were bagged by Samajwadi Party (SP).

Three members of Yadav family are in the fray as SP candidates in phase 3. These include former Chief Minister ’s wife Dimple Yadav, who is the SP candidate from party stronghold Mainpuri. Former Member of Parliament (MP) Akshay Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav, is contesting from Firozabad and Aditya Yadav, son of Shivpal Singh Yadav, is contesting from Badaun seat. 

Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav is SP patriarch late 's cousin. Shivpal Singh Yadav is Mulayam's brother.

The Samajwadi Party has never lost seat since 1960s. SP patriarch late won this seat five times. His daughter-in-law , the sitting MP, is up against BJP’s Jaiveer Singh this time. Dimple had defeated BJP’s Raghuraj Shakya by about 2.9 Lakh votes in 2019. 

In Firozabad, Mulayam's nephew Akshay Yadav is contesting against BJP’s Vishwadeep Singh. In 2019, BJP’s Chandra Sen Jadon defeated by about 30,000 votes. Akshay won the seat in 2014, though.

And in Badaun, debutant and another Mulayam nephew, Aditya Yadav is contesting against BJP’s Durvijay Sakya. In 2019, the BJP's Sanghamitra Maurya had defeated Mulayam's other nephew Dharmendra Yadav, a two-time MP from Badaun, by 18,500 votes. 

The Yadav family is going to Lok Sabha polls without SP patriarch , who passed away in 2022. The SP is contesting 2024 Lok Sabha elections in with the