Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh): The by-polls in Uttar Pradesh's Rampur Assembly Constituency is likely to witness a high profile contest between Samajwadi Party's Dimple Yadav and Bharatiya Janta Party's Jaya Prada.
Talks are, reportedly, on within the party to field Dimple from Rampur, a seat that Azam won nine times, and the decision will be announced soon, said sources.
Dimple Yadav began her political career in 2009 when she lost a by-election in Ferozabad to Raj Babbar of the Congress. She later won the by-elections on the Kannauj seat unopposed and retained the seat in 2014.
The former Kannauj MP and Akhilesh Yadav’s wife, Dimple Yadav retained the seat in 2014 general elections, but in May she lost to the BJP’s Subrat Pathak by a margin of around 12,000 votes.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has never won the East UP seat, seems hopeful this time around with Jaya Prada. After she was defeated in the Lok Sabha elections by Azam Khan, Jaya Prada has been regularly visiting Rampur and preparing the ground for her contest.
Jaya Prada had won the Rampur Lok Sabha seat in 2004 and 2009 on a Samajwadi Party ticket before joining the BJP.
The by-elections were necessitated after Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mohd Azam Khan was elected to the Lok Sabha. Khan, who held the seat for nine terms, defeated Jaya Prada to win the Rampur parliamentary seat.
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The by-polls are likely to be announced in September. Eleven seats in the state fell vacant after the sitting MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha. The Hamirpur seat fell vacant after sitting BJP MLA Ashok Chandel was disqualified after his conviction in a murder case.
