Express News Service
LUCKNOW: The campaign for by-elections to Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha constituencies in UP concluded on Tuesday. While the SP is high on confidence of winning both seats, the BJP is hoping to trump the former in its strongholds.
CM Yogi Adityanath at an election campaignin Rampur on Tuesday | PTIBypolls have been necessitated in Rampur and Azamgarh, vacated by Azam Khan and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav respectively, after the two leaders decided to retain their assembly seats of Rampur Sadar and Karhal which they won in the 2022 assembly elections.
The voting will take place on June 23 and the result will be announced on June 26.
The ruling BJP pressed a battery of leaders and a whole lot of state ministers from CM Yogi Adityanath to Deputy CM Keshav Maurya, into service to try to wrest both the seats from the SP.
Launching a scathing attack on SP leader Azam Khan without taking his name in his bastion Rampur, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath claimed the BJP’s “double engine” government worked to liberate the poor from the ‘land mafia’ in Rampur in the last five years.
Meanwhile, Rampur royal family scion Nawab Kazim Ali alias Naved Mian appealed the people to vote against SP candidate Asim Raza, a close confidante of Azam Khan. Akhilesh Yadav remained elusive and did not seek support for his party candidates in Rampur and Azamgarh.
A local SP leader of Azamgarh claimed that the party’s district unit was enough to win the seat and there was no need to bother ‘Adhyakshyaji’ .Political pundits believe that the SP leaders are riding high on confidence as they want to convey the message that Azamgarh and Rampur could be won even without bothering Akhilesh Yadav.
