AS THE Election Fee on Saturday introduced the schedule for bypolls within the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency and the Rampur Meeting seat, the duty of profitable the seats is a formidable problem, each for the ruling BJP and the principle Opposition, Samajwadi Social gathering (SP).
In accordance with the schedule introduced by the ballot panel on Saturday, notification shall be issued on November 10, the final date for submitting nominations is November 17 and November 21 would be the final date for withdrawal of candidature. Polling shall be held on December 5 and votes shall be counted on December 8.
Afterward Saturday, each the BJP and the SP started organising conferences relating to preparations. Whereas SP president Akhilesh Yadav held a gathering with celebration leaders in Lucknow and later reached his dwelling village, Saifai, to talk to leaders in Mainpuri constituency, BJP leaders, together with former candidates, held a gathering in Mainpuri district to plan the celebration’s marketing campaign.
The SP, that received each the seats within the respective basic elections, shall be feeling some additional stress. Mainpuri is taken into account a bastion of the celebration and the seat had fallen vacant following the loss of life of celebration founder Mulayam Singh Yadav final month. Mulayam was elected MP from this seat 5 occasions — 2019, 2014, 2009, 2004 and 1996. In 2004, Mulayam secured 64 per cent votes.
Other than these elections when Mulayam himself contested in Mainpuri, the SP additionally received the seat in 1998, 1999 and in a bypoll in 2014. Mulayam vacated the seat in 2014 and his grand nephew, Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, was elected with 64.46 per cent vote share.
In 1998 and 1999, SP’s Balram Singh Yadav received the seat. Thus, historical past reveals that the SP has been profitable Mainpuri constantly since 1996. Within the earlier two basic elections and one bypoll, BJP was the runner-up there.
BJP chief Prem Singh Shakya, who misplaced within the 2019 basic elections claimed, “Social equations remained in favour of the Yadav household there. Additionally, the SP was ruling in Uttar Pradesh in 2014 and the then state authorities misused energy and cash to win the overall elections and the bypoll. The BJP will win the approaching bypoll as a result of there shall be free and honest elections underneath the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP authorities.”
The saffron celebration additionally claimed that Dalits, too, supported the SP in 2019 as a result of Bahujan Samaj Social gathering (BSP) president Mayawati had shared stage with Mulayam and appealed for votes for him. “When Mulayam’s relations touched Mayawati’s ft on stage… that shifted Dalit votes in assist of Mulayam. Regardless of that, Mulayam received that election by a margin of solely 94,389 votes… he had received the seat by an even bigger margin prior to now,” stated BJP’s Mainpuri district president Pradeep Singh Chauhan.
Mulayam had received in Mainpuri with a margin of three.64 lakh votes in 2014 and 1.73 lakh votes in 2009.
Mainpuri Lok Sabha contains 5 Meeting segments — Mainpuri, Bhongaon, Kishani, Karhal and Jaswantnagar — of which SP had received three and BJP had received two within the 2022 Meeting elections. Akhilesh Yadav was elected MLA from Karhal whereas Mulayam’s youthful brother, Shivpal Singh Yadav, received Jaswantnagar seat.
The Mainpuri constituency sees dominance of Yadav voters, who’re greater than 5 lakh in quantity. There are almost 4 lakh non-Yadav OBCs, together with Shakya, Saini, Maurya, Lodh and others. There are round 2.5 lakh Dalits and over 60,000 Muslims. The remaining voters are from completely different higher castes.
Selecting a candidate for Mainpuri is a tricky job for Akhilesh as he’ll face the problem of retaining the sitting seat of his father and the candidate shall be seen as Mulayam’s successor within the area.
Whereas Yadavs’ dominance poses a problem for BJP in Mainpuri, Muslims – thought-about one other vote financial institution of the SP – are the problem for the saffron celebration within the Rampur Meeting seat that fell vacant final week when SP senior chief Azam Khan misplaced his state Meeting membership after his conviction in a hate speech case.
Azam received this Muslim-dominated seat 10 occasions, together with six occasions as SP candidate. As soon as his spouse Tazeen Fatma received a bypoll in 2019 when Azam resigned from the Meeting to retain his Lok Sabha membership. Azam confronted defeat within the Rampur Meeting seat solely as soon as – in 1996 when Congress candidate Afroz Ali Khan received.
Curiously, the BJP emerged runner-up in Rampur solely within the 2022, 2017 and 1991 elections.— when it received absolute majority within the Meeting. Earlier, the Congress completed second there in 2012, 2007, 2002 and 1989.
Requested in regards to the SP’s plans for the Rampur bypoll, celebration spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary stated on Saturday that the celebration would finalise its candidate “after dialogue with Azam Khan.” “Each the seats had been received by SP earlier. We’ll win each the seats once more within the coming bypoll,” Chaudhary stated.
The BSP and the SP are prone to come face-to-face in a contest months after the BJP’s Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi defeated SP’s Asim Raja in Rampur Lok Sabha bypoll in June this 12 months. Asim is seen as an Azam loyalist and by-election was necessitated after Azam resigned from Lok Sabha membership after getting elected to Vidhan Sabha from Rampur Sadar.