After 25 years, no Raj Babbar in Agra elections
AGRA : Lok Sabha elections are taking place but there is no Raj Babbar in Agra and Firozabad, after 25 years.
The actor-turned-politician had been in the picture in one role or another in all parliamentary elections held since 1999 in Agra and Firozabad. The highlight of this period was 2009 when he defeated Dimple Yadav in the byelection held in Firozabad after Akhilesh Yadav vacated the seat.
The shabby looking intermediate college on Moti Lal Nehru
Road of Agra is more identified as the college where Raj Babbar studied and fought a college election and won, reminds his childhood friend Sameer Chaturvedi. Having an inclination for acting, Babbar moved to make his name in the glamour world of Mumbai and attained success. Raj Babbar began his political career with the VP Singh-led Janata Dal in 1989 but joined Samajwadi Party which gave him Rajya Sabha seat from 1994 to 1999. As an MP, Babbar utilised his MP fund for Agra, the city where he claims his roots lie.
Raj Babbar made news away from Agra when he contested against BJP leader Atal Behari Vajpayee in Lucknow but lost by 1.80 lakh votes in 1996 but continued as Rajya Sabha MP and decided to have plunge in active politics of Agra and filed nomination papers as SP candidate from Agra in 1999 and defeated three-time BJP MP from Agra, Bhagwan Shankar Rawat.
His win was attributed more to his own popularity in Agra than that of Samajwadi Party which, otherwise, has never won in Agra till date. Babbar repeated the success in 2004 Lok Sabha elections, but things went wrong between Babbar and SP. He moved out of SP and constituted Jan Morcha which contested the assembly election of 2007 and won a seat in Agra.
Babbar joined the Congress in 2008 and contested from Fatehpur Sikri in 2009 after Agra turned a reserved seat.Babbar lost. The same year, he was asked by Congress to contest the Firozabad by-election after Akhilesh Yadav chose to vacate it. Babbar grabbed headlines after defeating Dimple Yadav. During the Modi wave of 2014, Babbar contested against General (Retired) VK Singh and lost by about 5 lakh votes. In 2016, the Congress party made him its UP unit president. He contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Fatehpur Sikri but lost to BJP candidate Raj Kumar Chahar by over 4 lakh votes.
BUDAUN: The father-son duo of Samajwadi Party national general secretary Shivpal Yadav and Aditya Yadav are campaigning in the hinterland of Budaun in a bid to wrest this Lok Sabha seat from the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Rohilkhand region that has been a traditional stronghold of the SP.
Shivpal Yadav is knocking on every door in Budaun as his son Aditya looks to make his maiden entry into the Lok Sabha. Samajwadi Party candidate Dharmendra Yadav lost the Budaun seat to the BJP’s Sanghamitra Maurya in the 2019 Lok Sabha election by about 18,454 votes.
Yadav-Muslim voters have a sizable presence in Budaun and are expected to act as “shock absorbers” for the Samajwadi Party to mitigate the loss of other constituents, if any.
Initially, Shivpal, the SP’s Jaswantnagar MLA, was named the party candidate for the Budaun Lok Sabha seat. It was at his instance that Aditya Yadav replaced him.
Shivpal Yadav spoke to
in Budaun on Saturday morning and looked confident, asserting that the INDIA bloc had the edge in the first two phases of the Lok Sabha election held on April 19 and 26.
He also said: “The Samajwadi Party- Congress alliance will continue in Uttar Pradesh even in the 2027 assembly polls.” Excerpts from the interview:
Pawan Dixit
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is saying that the “jodi (duo)” (Akhilesh