Amit Bishnoi
Lucknow: It is going to be a straight fight between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) in the ensuing Lok Sabha by-elections to be held on June 23 in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur and Azamgarh. Aside from the SP, the by-polls will be important for the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which is trying to gain a foothold in the state after being decimated in the recent assembly elections. The Congress has planned to keep away from the by-elections, though it is yet to be known whether the party would support the SP candidates, because its leaders are mum on the issue. Although only five days are left for the by-elections, neither SP president Akhilesh Yadav nor BSP supremo Mayawati campaigned for their respective party candidates.
The Azamgarh seat has fallen vacant after Akhilesh Yadav decided to retain his assembly seat. Former MP Dharmendra Yadav, also the cousin of Akhilesh Yadav, is in the fray from Azamgarh on an SP ticket. SP candidates won both the Lok Sabha seats in 2019. For the SP, the contest in Azamgarh may be a little tough, because the BSP has fielded a popular local leader, Guddu Jamali. He may make a dent in the SP’s Muslim vote bank. The BJP is, however, counting on the Bhojpuri star Dinesh Lal Yadav whom Akhilesh Yadav trounced in the last Lok Sabha elections in Azamgarh. The BSP’s performance will be the deciding factor in the by-election in Azamgarh.
Rampur is the fortress of Mohd Azam Khan. Therefore, the battle is again between the SP and the BJP. Khan, though ill, is campaigning for the party candidate Asim Raja. The BJP’s candidate from Rampur is Ghanshyam Lodhi, a former aide of Khan. The BSP has, however, kept away from fielding any candidate from Rampur. The seat fell vacant as Khan stepped down as MP, and decided to continue as an MLA.
