Tej Pratap Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav's grand-nephew and the Samajwadi Party candidate from Mainpuri
Tej Pratap Yadav, a Leeds University graduate, is the latest member of Mulayam Singh Yadav's family to enter Uttar Pradesh politics. He is the Samajwadi Party candidate in the by-elections to be held on Saturday for the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat.
The seat was vacated by Mulayam Singh after the national elections; the Samajwadi Party chief contested and had won two seats in Uttar Pradesh, which his party rules. Tej Pratap is the grandson of Mulayam's older brother Ratan Singh Yadav.
The 26-year-old refutes the charge that he is a product of dynastic politics and says he has been living in Saifai, the family village, for the last few years and is contesting "on popular demand."
Tej Pratap appears to be confident that he will win the seat that his grand uncle has won five times. He is dismissive of the BJP - which had won 71 of UP's 80 Lok Sabha seats in this year's national elections - saying that the people are "tired of its divisive politics."
"In the last bypolls, be it Bihar or Karnataka, everywhere the BJP has lost. This means that the popular sentiment accompanying the Lok Sabha elections has now died down and I am confident that the people of Uttar Pradesh will give their verdict in favor of the Samajwadi Party this time," said Mr Yadav in Mainpuri.
With an MBA from Amity University, he went on to do an MSc in Management from the UK. He has been part of the party's organisation in Saifai and was Mulayam's election agent during the Lok Sabha polls.
Today is the last day of campaigning for the by-elections for 11 assembly and 1 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. A resurgent BJP takes on the ruling Samajwadi Party, headed in the state by Tej Pratap's uncle Akhilesh Yadav, who faces criticism for not being able to check growing incidents of communal tension.