The Firozabad Lok Sabha seat — where voter turnout jumped to 53 per cent from 48 per cent in May, and where Dimple Yadav suffered a humiliating defeat — reflects the deep challenge SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav faces in Uttar Pradesh.

The SP lost about 60,000 votes in less than six months at the seat. The Congress improved its vote tally from a little above 6,000 in the general elections to over 3 lakh in the byelection. The SP also failed to win Bharthana and Etawah, both Mulayam Singh’s bases.

Dimple led Congress candidate Raj Babbar in three of the five Assembly segments of Firozabad Lok Sabha seat — Jasrana, Sirsaganj and Shikohabad. But nowhere was he very far behind her.

On the other hand, in the two Assembly segments that he led — Tundla and Firozabad — the SP candidate was all but decimated. Not only did these two segments make up for Babbar’s second-best show elsewhere, they powered him to victory by a massive overall margin of 85,000 votes.

Babbar won Firozabad segment by over 71,000 votes, Tundla by over 40,000. In Shikohabad by contrast, Dimple scraped through by less than 1,500 votes. She won Jasrana by 3,000, and Sirsaganj by 12,000. All three segments have been traditional strongholds of the Yadav family.

At all five Assembly segments, the SP polled fewer votes than in May, when Mulayam’s son — and Dimple’s husband — Akhilesh contested and won. Babbar, on the other hand, brought about a complete turnaround in the Congress tally.

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