Why Dimple Yadav could be Akhilesh's biggest weapon against BJP in 2027 UP polls

It's not 2017, when Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, stung by then-Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's remark on dynastic politics, announced that his wife Dimple Yadav would not contest another election. It's 2026. Since then, Dimple Yadav has contested three Lok Sabha elections, and won twice. Mainpuri MP Dimple Yadav, now appears to be the Samajwadi Party's trump card for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election.Be it during the CJP protests at Jantar Mantar, or extending a healing touch to the protesting students in distress, or on a carefully arranged stage in Lucknow's Lohia Sabhagaar, Dimple is increasingly occupying the foreground in Samajwadi Party's political campaign against the BJP. With the Samajwadi Party out of power in Uttar Pradesh for two consecutive terms, Akhilesh, an astute politician, appears willing to let Dimple Yadav take the foreground.Dimple Yadav, once withdrawn from electoral politics to counter allegations of pariwarwad, is now effectively the Samajwadi Party's number two months ahead of the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh. The term of the current Uttar Pradesh Assembly ends on May 22, 2027, according to the Election Commission of India.Dimple Yadav has become the party's principal woman face. She has taken on the BJP over the NEET paper leaks and alleged exam irregularities. She has been vocal about women's safety and representation, and even unveiled the Samajwadi Party's biggest welfare promise for women ahead of the crucial polls. Her growing visibility also gives Akhilesh a softer but combative campaigner who can reach voters beyond the Samajwadi Party's traditional bases, the Muslim-Yadav (MY), and the Pichda Dalit Alpasankhyak (PDA), that the party chief has tried to extend to Brahmins. By fielding Dimple Yadav in Uttar Pradesh, the Akhilesh Yadav-led party looks to be targetting women voters whose support helped the BJP build its formidable electoral coalition in India's most politically-significant state. The move looks calculated as the 2027 election approaches, especially after the Samajwadi Party's strong showing in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Having won 37 of Uttar Pradesh's 80 seats (INDIA bloc won 43), Akhilesh now wants to turn the parliamentary high into an Assembly poll victory. Mainpuri MP Dimple Yadav met Sonam Wangchuk at Jantar Mantar and tended to injured protesters during CJP-led demonstrations in New Delhi. (Images: PTI/Social Media) Being the face of the Samajwadi Party, Dimple Yadav, who has no "mafia-gunda-raaj" baggage, can soften the Samajwadi Party's enduring image problem on women's safety, directly challenge the BJP's women-centric welfare politics, expand the PDA formulation to include "aadhi abadi" (women), and campaign without appearing as politically abrasive as many male leaders of the Hindi-heartland. Her electoral record (particularly two victories from Mainpuri) also gives her more weight than that of a symbolic campaigner.DIMPLE YADAV: FROM RELUCTANT ENTRANT TO SP'S NUMBER TWO Dimple's electoral journey began with defeat. In the 2009 Firozabad Lok Sabha bypoll, she lost to Congress candidate Raj Babbar after Akhilesh vacated the seat and retained Kannauj in the election in which he had contested two seats.She entered Parliament three years later, elected unopposed from Kannauj after Akhilesh became Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and vacated the constituency. She retained Kannauj in 2014 but lost to the BJP's Subrat Pathak by 12,353 votes in 2019.Between those two elections came Akhilesh's much-publicised promise.Rahul Gandhi, speaking at the University of California, Berkeley, in September 2017, defended the Congress against allegations of dynastic politics by citing Akhilesh Yadav, MK Stalin and others. Responding days later in Raipur, Akhilesh said that if there was pariwarwad (dynastic politics) in his party, Dimple would not contest again."If our party has family politics, then my wife will not contest elections now," he said, while challenging the BJP to follow suit.The promise did not survive until the next general election. Dimple contested Kannauj in 2019 as the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance candidate. She lost to the BJP.After Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav's death, the Samajwadi Party fielded her in the 2022 Mainpuri bypoll. She defeated the BJP's Raghuraj Shakya by over 2.88 lakh votes. In 2024, she retained the family stronghold, defeating BJP candidate Jaiveer Singh by 2.2 lakh votes.By then, she had become one of the Samajwadi Party's most recognisable leaders. Before marrying Akhilesh Yadav in 1999, Dimple Rawat was a commerce student at Lucknow University and had no political background. The daughter of a retired Indian Army Colonel, she grew up in several places, including Pune, Bathinda and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, because of her father's postings. (Image: India Today Archive) FROM JANTAR MANTAR TO LUCKNOW, HOW DIMPLE TOOK CENTRESTAGEDimple's new role in the Samajwadi Party was visible during the CJP protests at Jantar Mantar. She had gone to Jantar Mantar to meet activist Sonam Wangchuk, who was on a hunger strike over students' demands.On July 20, during the student-led "Sansad Chalo" protest in New Delhi, as police used batons and tear gas to stop protesters marching towards Parliament, she shot to prominence. Photographs showed an injured Dimple, with a handkerchief wrapped around her right hand, checking on a student lying on a stretcher and offering water to an injured girl. While Akhilesh was inside Parliament, Dimple was on the street.She also accused the Centre of using excessive force against students and demanded accountability in Parliament. Her actions and statement projected an empathetic leader, willing to stand alongside young protesters.A month later, during a programme at Lucknow's Lohia Sabhagaar on August 26, Akhilesh was the only male leader of the Samajwadi Party on a stage filled with the party's women MPs, MLAs. And, among them, Dimple was at the centre of the frame. Dimple opened the press conference and unveiled the Stree Samman Samriddhi Yojana, promising eligible women Rs 40,000 annually if the Samajwadi Party formed the government in Uttar Pradesh."Women's power will develop not merely by talking about it, but by giving women true representation. Respect and prosperity of every woman included in the PDA as 'aadhi abadi' is our resolve," she said.The promise appears to counter Yogi Adityanath's BJP-led government's reported plan to provide women assistance of up to Rs 50,000 through direct cash transfers to women.In the Lok Sabha, Dimple also accused the BJP government of delaying women's reservations despite all parties having supported the law in 2023. She questioned its intentions, saying, "If the BJP's sole intention was reservation to women, they would have implemented the Bill passed in 2023." Samajwadi Party National President and MP Akhilesh Yadav along with party MPs Dimple Yadav, Priya Saroj, Iqra Choudhary and other party leaders and workers during a press conference, at the party office in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. (PTI Image) CAN DIMPLE TURN SAMAJWADI PARTY'S FORTUNES, HELP IT WOO WOMEN VOTERS?The women's electorate has historically been a weak point for the Samajwadi Party. According to the Lokniti-CSDS post-poll survey for the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, the BJP secured a 13-percentage-point lead over the Samajwadi Party-Jayant Chaudhary-led Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance among women voters.The BJP repeatedly invokes the law-and-order record of previous Samajwadi Party governments and Mulayam Singh Yadav's infamous "boys make mistakes" remark to portray the party as insensitive to women's safety.Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath has revived that attack while launching lifelong free bus travel for women aged 60 and above. Referring to the pre-2017 period in Uttar Pradesh, he said, "There was a time when a slogan echoed on the lips of every daughter, sister and mother, 'Dekh SaPa-yi, bitiya ghabrayi'." This translates to, "On seeing the Samajwadis, women get scared".With a suave and simple Dimple at the fore, the Samajwadi Party is perhaps looking to blunt that charge. It's talking about increased representation for women, and is making welfare scheme promises.The 2024 Lok Sabha poll results offered encouragement to the Samajwadi Party. Women outnumbered men among voters in 17 Uttar Pradesh constituencies. The Samajwadi Party-led INDIA bloc won 12 of them, including 10 secured by the Samajwadi Party, according to an analysis published in The Times of India.At the programme at Lucknow's Lohia Sabhagaar on August 26, Dimple Yadav urged women to break social barriers and pursue their goals with determination. (Video: Samajwadi Party/YouTube)In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the Samajwadi Party sent five women MPs from Uttar Pradesh to Parliament. They were Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri, Iqra Hasan from Kairana, Priya Saroj from Machhlishahr, Ruchi Vira from Moradabad and Krishna Devi Shivshanker Patel from Banda. Meanwhile, from the BJP only one woman MP was elected. It was Hema Malini from Mathura.The BJP's womens' safety claim is also open to challenge, which has been highlighted by Akhilesh Yadav. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data reveals that registered crimes against women in Uttar Pradesh rose from 49,262 in 2016 to over 66,000 in 2023. While the comparison requires caution, as higher registration can reflect improved reporting, and Uttar Pradesh is India's most populous state, Akhilesh went hammer and tongs against the BJP.Now, months before the crucial Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh. Dimple Yadav is taking on the Yogi Adityanath government while accusing the BJP of reducing women to slogans.Responding to the Uttar Pradesh government's Raksha Bandhan outreach, Akhilesh said, "We appeal to the BJP not to reduce women to a slogan. It should implement the reservation that has already become law... I can assure women that there will be no compromise on their security under a Samajwadi government."While cash transfers alone might not erase the SP's baggage, Dimple's prominence and her coming to the forefront, gives Akhilesh and the Samajwadi Party something his party has long lacked. A credible woman campaigner with electoral success, national visibility and access to the SP's command centre.That is why the 2017 pledge once used to keep Dimple away from elections has acquired an ironic afterlife. In 2027, Dimple might be the leader Akhilesh needs most.- EndsPublished By: Sushim MukulPublished On: Aug 31, 2026 07:00 IST