One Representative - Three elections

VISHAL SHARMA

INDIA (AGRA), 10 Dec. In a most unique example of the impartial manner in which the Indian democracy operates, over 1.2 million voters of the highly caste driven and violence prone Mainpuri parliamentary constituency of the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in India shall participate in the polls being held for the third time in a year to send their elected representative in the Lok Sabha (House of Commons).

The electorate of this parliamentary constituency, spread in three districts of Mainpuri, Etawah & Firozabad, shall go for polls for the third time, this time, under the close vigil of the Election Commission of India, with the deployment of 14 companies of para military forces apart from the police of these three districts.

While the Mainpuri administration and the Election Commission are confident of a free and fair election this time, the locals have an entirely different view to these elections. Ghamandi lal, a resident of the Mughalpura village in the Karhal assembly area of Mainpuri, says that he has already voted three times for this parliamentary seat – two times in the elections and once in the by-polls. But as the UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav’s nephew is contesting these elections, there is no guarantee that these elections shall not be cancelled again due to violence and he may have to vote again for the fifth time. Notably, in the October poll-violence, one man had died in the Mughalpura village and re-polls had been ordered on this polling station by the Election Commission.

It is noteworthy here that in the elections held in May this year for the first time, the present UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav had won this seat with a huge margin of votes, but with his party not mustering enough seats to have a say in the formation of the Central Government, Mulayam Singh chose to retain his seat in the UP Assembly and resigned from the Mainpuri parliamentary seat. The seat had been continually running vacant since the time.

The by-polls on the seat, held on 13th October were countermanded by the Election Commission of India, following the complaints of rigging and intimidation of voters by musclemen belonging to the ruling Samajwadi Party. Two people had died in Mainpuri due to this violence, leading to the opposition party candidates making a united front against Dharmendra Yadav, the nephew of UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh who had contested this seat as Mulayam’s substitute candidate.
(UNITED NEWS NETWORK)

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