Azamgarh Lok Sabha elections 2024: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has declared Bhojpuri actor Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirahua' again from the Azamgarh seat for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024. Local BJP leaders believed that irrespective of the candidate from this seat, people have trust on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They exuded confidence that Nirahua will win from Azamgarh constituency.
Azamgarh has always been considered a safe seat for the late Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family, mainly because of the large Yadav population there. However, this time candidate of the Samajwadi Party (SP) Dharmendra Yadav is facing turbulent weather and aggressive campaigning by the BJP, coupled with PM Modi’s charisma.
Moreover, since its inception in 1992, the SP will be contesting a Lok Sabha election for the first time without its founder, Mulayam Singh Yadav. Samajwadi Party has stepped up its electioneering ground work in Azamgarh as it eyes to wrest the Lok Sabha seat which it lost to the BJP in the 2022 parliamentary by-poll.
The Azamgarh seat, which was held by SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav in 2014 and party president Akhilesh Yadav in 2019, was lost by the party when Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirahua' won the 2022 by-poll defeating SP's Dharmendra Yadav.
The by-poll was necessitated when Akhilesh Yadav resigned from the seat after winning from the Karhal constituency in Mainpuri district in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. BJP's Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua won 2022 bypoll by securing 3.12 lakh votes, while SP's Dharmendra Yadav got 3.04 lakh votes.
BSP candidate from Azamgarh
The Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded Mashhood Ahmed for the seat of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh.
Political history of Azamgarh seat
Since 1996, only Muslims and Yadavs have been winning the Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat. Ramakant Yadav won the seat as an SP candidate in 1996 and 1999. He won it again as a BSP candidate in 2004 and on a BJP ticket in 2009. The seat was held by Akbar Ahmed Dumpy as a BSP candidate in 1998 and 2008 by-election.
In the 2014 general elections, despite the "Modi wave", Mulayam Singh Yadav succeeded in winning the seat and defeated Ramakant by 63,000 votes, securing 35.43 per cent of the votes. BJP's Ramakant got 28.85 per cent of the votes, Jamali, then fielded by BSP, got 27.75 per cent.
SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav won the seat in 2019 defeating BJP's Nirahua, who won the 2022 bypoll. SP and BSP were in alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The Azamgarh Lok Sabha constituency has five assembly segments- Gopalpur, Sagri, Mubarakpur, Azamgarh and Mehnagar- all held by the SP at present.
Lok Sabha polls 2024
The general election for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases starting April 19, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced on Saturday. The counting will be held on June 4. Nearly 97 crore voters will be eligible to vote for 543 Lok Sabha constituencies across the country. With the announcement of dates, the moral code of conduct comes into force immediately.
