Dimple Yadav, three-time MP and wife of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, is contesting for the fourth time, defending the family bastion of Mainpuri. The 46-year-old, who had married into a political family back in 1999, told NDTV today that she has grown into the role.
"Since I am from an army background, I never thought I'll be in politics," she told NDTV in an exclusive interview. Ms Yadav's father was a Colonel in the Indian army.
Asked how she has changed over the last 15 years, Ms Yadav laughed.
"I have grown in the last 15 years I think. Everybody grows with time. I can do much better now. I have become an extrovert, standing on a different pedestal," she added.
Dimple Yadav has been nursing the Mainpuri constituency since 2022. She won the by-election after the death of father-in-law Mulayam Singh Yadav, who was the sitting MP.
Earlier, she was a two-time MP from Kannauj. She won the constituency in 2012 after her husband resigned to contest the assembly election.
This time, the Samajwadi Party is contesting 62 seats in Uttar Pradesh -- the most crucial state in the country on account of its 80 seats. Its alliance partner, the Congress, is contesting 17 seats.
To help with her campaign in Mainpuri, Dimple Yadav has found a new hand -- her daughter Aditi Yadav, who is studying in London, is home on a break and has joined her mother's team with much enthusiasm.
Asked whether she wants their daughter to follow in their footsteps, Ms Yadav said, "She would do whatever she wants to do. She is doing this for now, connecting with people, getting to know her roots. But doing what one likes is the way to excel. We are not putting any pressure on her".
In Mainpuri this time, Dimple Yadav, who has been mostly elected unopposed, is up against BJP minister Jaiveer Singh and Gulshan Shakya of Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party.
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