Tainted senior SP leader bites dust in MSY bastion

Agra: The Samajwadi Party-backed candidates bagged 26 out of 32 seats in the zila panchayat elections in Mainpuri district. BSP managed to secure two seats while BJP got just one. Three independent candidates also registered a win from the SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s bastion.
Senior SP leader Totaram Yadav, who was booked for booth-capturing, lost the poll battle as he managed mere 511 votes from ward number 29 that has 6,500 voters.An SP loyalist, Totaram has been with the party from more than four decades and been considered a close aide of Mulayam Singh Yadav.
In a video that went viral, Totaram was seen casting his votes multiple times during polling on October 16. The Mainpuri district magistrate ordered an FIR against him for booth capturing, along with a dozen of polling and police officials. He lost to Pradeep Pratap Singh.
SP’s Vandana Yadav won the keenly-contested seat, defeating five veterans from ward number 15.
Vandana Yadav, wife of SP MLA Raj Kumar Yadav, who made news by waylaying a truck carrying buffaloes on the Agra-Jaipur highway some months ago. Vandana won the election with 9711 votes while her second competitor Sujan Singh managed to get 9552 votes. Vandana also defeated Shyam Baran Yadav, who is present vice president of SP in Mainpuri. Senior SP leader Shailendra Pratap managed merely 74 votes from the same ward.
Another woman candidate, Meenakshi Yadav, wife of SP leader Billu Yadav was the winning candidate with the highest margin in Mainpuri from ward number 22. Meenakshi managed 6,000 extra votes from the runner-up.