BJP wrests SP bastions in bypolls, Yogi credits double-engine govt
Rajesh Kumar Singh
LUCKNOW: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday won the Lok Sabha bypolls to Samajwadi Party’s (SP) bastions of Azamgarh and Rampur, prompting chief minister Yogi Adityanath to call the result a reflection of people’s trust in the state and central governments.
BJP candidate Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua won the Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat, defeating nearest rival Dharmendra Yadav of the SP by a narrow margin of 8,679 votes, according to the Election Commission of India.
Nirahua polled 312,768 votes, compared with Yadav’s 304,089. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Shah Alam Guddu Jamali came in third with 2,66,210 votes. In Rampur, BJP candidate Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi defeated nearest rival Mohammad Asim Raja of SP by 42,192 votes. Lodhi polled 367,397 votes and Raja got 325,205.
“The historic victory of the BJP candidates in the by-elections to the Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats is the result of the welfare policies of the double engine BJP government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” chief minister Yogi Adityanath tweeted, referring to the BJP governments at both the state and the Centre.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had won the Azamgarh seat by 259,000 votes, while senior party leader Azam Khan had won the Rampur seat by 109,000 votes.
Akhilesh and Azam vacated the seats after they were elected to the state assembly from Karhal in Mainpuri, and Rampur, respectively, in March.
In the 2022 assembly election, the SP bagged three assembly seats — Rampur Sadar, Suar and Chamrua — that are part of the Rampur Lok Sabha constituency. The SP also won all five assembly seats — Mehnagar, Sagadi, Gopalpur, Azamgarh Sadar and Mubarakpur — in the Azamgarh Lok Sabha constituency, even as the BJP swept to power for a second successive term in Uttar Pradesh.
The SP fielded former parliamentarian Dharmendra Yadav, cousin of Akhilesh Yadav, at Azamgarh. It nominated Mohammad Asim Raja, a close aide of Azam Khan, for the Rampur seat. Khan campaigned after he was released on bail from Sitapur jail on May 20.
“This victory of the BJP is out of deceit, dishonesty, misuse of power, disregard of democracy and the Constitution, force, oppression by the administrative machinery, Dhritrashtra drishti (turning a blind eye) of the Election Commission, and abduction of the public mandate by the BJP Kaurav Sena. How could this be called an election? Democracy is bleeding,” Akhilesh said.
Adityanath and a battery of BJP ministers and party leaders had campaigned for the candidates in Azamgarh and Rampur.
“BJP’S victory in Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha constituencies, considered strong SP forts, will set the tone for the 2024 Lok Sabha election,” said SK Srivastava, a political observer. “Despite the Modi wave in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had failed to win the Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat. Though the BJP bagged the Rampur seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, it lost the seat in 2019,” he added.