Big Worry For Akhilesh Yadav’s Party In UP, Close Fight In 2 Seats

The Azamgarh seat was vacated following the election of Akhilesh Yadav Minister to the state assembly.

Lucknow:

The BJP managed to pull ahead of the Samajwadi Party as the counting of votes for the by-polls to the Rampur and Azamgarh Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh entered their fifth hour on Sunday amid tight security.

Both seats have been strongholds for the party led by Akhilesh Yadav. While the Azamgarh seat was vacated following the election of the former Chief Minister to the state assembly, the Rampur seat was similarly vacated by the party’s tallest Muslim leader Azam Khan.

The counting process started at 8 am.

In Azamgarh, the candidate from Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Shah Alam, has amassed over 1 lakh votes, coming very close to both the BJP and Samajwadi Party (SP) candidates. This strong performance appears to have majorly impacted the Samajwadi Party’s Dhamendra Yadav.

Another factor for this tight finish seems to be the absence of Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav from the campaign.

“No, it does not matter. He was checking on my campaign all the time,” Samajwadi Party candidate in Azamgarh Dharmendra Yadav said, when NDTV asked about the former Chief Minister’s absence from the campaign.

Mr Yadav earlier got into an argument with security personnel over allegedly being denied access to the strongroom.

Mr Yadav alleged that “an attempt is being made to change EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) and that is why he was not allowed entry inside.” The SP leader was later allowed inside.

Superintendent of Police, Azamgarh, Anurag Arya said those entitled were allowed entry after “frisking”.

“There was some confusion. Now he (Dharmendra Yadav) is inside and counting is going on smoothly,” the SP said.

The two constituencies voted on June 23, with Azamgarh recording a turnout of 49.43 per cent and Rampur 41.39 per cent.

Over 35 lakh people were eligible to vote in the bypolls to decide the fate of 19 candidates.

In Rampur, the BJP had fielded Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi, who recently joined the party. Asim Raja, handpicked by Azam Khan, is the Samajwadi Party candidate. The Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) did not contest from the seat.

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