LS bypolls: Double blow for SP as BJP wrests Azamgarh, Rampur seats

| | Lucknow
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LS bypolls: Double blow for SP as BJP wrests Azamgarh, Rampur seats

Monday, 27 June 2022 | PNS | Lucknow

LS bypolls: Double blow for SP as BJP wrests Azamgarh, Rampur seats

Sunday was a day of a double whammy for the Samajwadi Party (SP) as its candidates lost in their bastions — Rampur and Azamgarh — to the BJP in the Lok Sabha by-elections.

In Azamgarh, the BJP’s Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ defeated SP’s Dharmendra Yadav by 8,679 votes, while Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi beat Asim Raza by 42,192 votes in Rampur. Both seats have been the SP strongholds for decades.

The Azamgarh seat fell vacant following the election of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav to the State Assembly, while the Rampur seat was vacated by Azam Khan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the BJP’s victory in Azamgarh and Rampur on Twitter, terming it “historic”.

“The bypoll wins in Azamgarh and Rampur are historic. It indicates wide-scale acceptance and support for the double-engine Governments at the Centre and in UP. Grateful to the people for their support. I appreciate the efforts of our party karyakartas,” the PM tweeted.

The Azamgarh seat saw a triangular contest between the BJP’s Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’, SP’s Dharmendra Yadav and the BSP’s Shah Alam, also known as Guddu Jamali.

In Azamgarh, Shah Alam polled over 2 lakh votes, denting the prospects of Dharmendra Yadav. Another factor for this tight contest could be the absence of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav from the campaign.

The two constituencies went to the polls on June 23 and Azamgarh and Rampur recorded a 49.43 per cent and 41.39 per cent turnout, respectively. The BSP did not contest the Rampur bypoll and that helped the BJP as the Dalit votes shifted to the saffron party. NOTA got 4,447 votes.

Azam had won from Rampur in the Lok Sabha election in 2019 when the SP had an alliance with the BSP and RLD. In 2014, the BJP’s Nepal Singh had won the Rampur seat albeit with a thin margin of 23,435 votes.

Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi belongs to the OBC community and is a former SP MLC who had started his political career with the BJP but later switched sides. He had contested the Lok Sabha elections from Rampur as a BSP candidate in 2009 and finished

third.  He was elected as a member of the UP Legislative Council from the Rampur-Bareilly local bodies’ constituency in 2016 as an SP candidate. His term ended in March earlier this year.

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