Express News Service
LUCKNOW: With the byelection for Azamgarh and Rampur inching closer, Uttar Pradesh’s all major political parties including BJP, Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are sweating it out in the sultry heat to reach out to the voters.
The voting for both the seats along with one more Lok Sabha seat – Sangrur of Punjab– and seven assembly segments will take place on June 23 and the results will be announced on June 26.
The bypoll to the two seats — Azamgarh and Rampur—has been necessitated due to the resignation of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and senior SP leader Azam Khan as both had contested 2022 UP assembly polls and won their respective Karhal and Rampur Sadar segments to enter the state assembly.
Azamgarh, believed to be a bastion of SP, seems poised for a tough triangular battle ahead as, on one hand, the BJP has fielded Dinesh Lal Yadav, popularly known as Nirhaua, in an attempt to woo the Yadav voters, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded Shah Alam alias Guddu Jamali to breach into the Muslim vote bank of SP.
Though SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has put the bet strategically on Dharmendra Yadav, his first cousin and former MP from Badaun, political pundits feel that the sailing would not be easy for the SP in the wake of the unambiguous annoyance of Shivpal Yadav with Akhilesh on one hand and sulking Muslim leadership of the party on the other.
“Shivpal-Akhilesh rift, out in the open, may dent the Yadav vote bank of SP. Shivpal enjoys the sympathy and respect among Yadavs who feel that he, who along with Mulayam Singh Yadav, has built the SP with his blood and sweat, has been denied justice by Akhilesh. The family rift may play out in Azamgarh hitting the core Yadav vote base of SP,” says Prof AK Mishra, a political scientist.
Moreover, the BSP may succeed in wooing the Muslim voters as after the 2022 Assembly polls, Akhilesh has been facing vexation of the Muslim leadership owing to his alleged indifference to Azam Khan’s plight. Khan remained in jail for 27 months in connection with 89 cases lodged against him and his supporters openly vent out their anger against SP leadership saying despite their unconditional support to SP, Akhilesh had never been there for the minority community in the hour of need. Even a number of Muslim leaders of SP quit the party expressing their disappointment.
In fact, Azamgarh has 19 lakh voters of which Yadavs make the biggest chunk of 4.5 lakh. Muslims and SC are three lakhs each and the rest 8.5 lakh voters belong to different castes.
Notably, since 1989 till 2019, Azamgarh has either been in the kitty of SP or BSP. However, BSP founder president Kanshiram had consolidated his party’s roots in Azamgarh even before the SP came into being by winning it in 1989. In 1991, Janata Party had won it and in 2009, BJP wrested it. Thus the contest of Azamgarh has more or less been bipolar between SP and the BSP.
In 2014, SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav had won from Azamgarh and Mainpuri. He retained Azamgarh and passed on the legacy to his son in 2019 when Akhilesh represented it in Lok Sabha defeating BJP’s Nirhaua with a margin of around 2.6 lakh votes. In 2019, BSP did not field a candidate as it was in alliance with the SP.
With Nirhaua of BJP and Guddu Jamali of BSP in the fray, SP seemingly did not want to take any chances in Azamgarh and decided in favour of another Yadav clan scion Dharmendra Yadav for bypoll at the last moment.
While the BSP has announced a list of 40 star campaigners for this seat, including BSP Chief Mayawati herself, BJP has also announced a long list of star campaigners for its candidate Nirahua. Many Bhojpuri singers and stars are already campaigning for Nirahua in Azamgarh. The BJP is also focusing on booth handling as the party has established 311 Shakti Kendras to reach out to voters with the help of various fronts.
The BJP veterans are trying to reach out to the voters based on the ground reports of various cells. Preparations are being made to reach out to 10 lakh voters of the parliamentary constituency. BJP has prepared a grand plan at boothlevel. In order to implement their strategy on the ground, conferences are being organised by dividing it into 311 Shakti Kendras of eight booths in 22 divisions.
On the other hand, SP leaders are busy in their ‘cycle yatras’ (cycle tours) to reach out to the voters of Azamgarh. SP candidate Dharmendra Yadav has said that the workers of various fronts of the party will lay the foundation of victory by reaching out to 10 lakh voters. As per information, ten MLAs of SP along with different teams comprising youngsters, women, backward, scheduled tribe, farmers and minority fronts are busy reaching out to people of Azamgarh.
