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Campaigning for LS bypolls ends today as Akhilesh stays away so far
The LS bypolls were necessitated as SP chief Akhilesh Yadav quit Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat and party veteran Azam Khan quit Rampur seat on being elected lawmakers to the U.P. assembly in the 2022 elections. Voting at both the seats will be held on June 23.
Although campaigning for bypolls to Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha (LS) seats will end on Tuesday (June 21), it is likely that the Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav may not campaign for his party candidates in both the places. “So far, no campaign programme of the national president (of SP) is finalised,” said party sources both in Azamgarh and Rampur.
The bypolls were necessitated as SP chief Akhilesh Yadav quit Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat and party veteran Azam Khan quit Rampur seat on being elected lawmakers to the U.P. assembly in the 2022 elections. Voting at both the seats will be held on June 23.
In Azamgarh, the SP has fielded Akhilesh’s cousin Dharmendra Yadav, a former SP MP from Budaun while in Rampur, Aseem Raza, reportedly the choice of Rampur SP MLA Azam Khan, is the party’s candidate. Political observers are also surprised at Akhilesh Yadav not campaigning for his party’s candidates from the two seats.
On the other hand, the ruling BJP is trying to wrest both the seats from the SP while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is giving a tough contest to the SP on the Azamgarh seat. The BJP has done intense campaigning on both the seats, including rallies by chief minister Yogi Adityanath in Azamgarh and deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad in Rampur. Several other party leaders have also canvassed at both the places.
The BSP has not fielded any candidate for the Rampur seat from where the BJP’s candidate is Ghanshyam Lodhi. On the Azamgarh seat, BJP’s candidate is Dinesh Yadav ‘Nirahua’ while the BSP’s candidate is Shah Alam aka Guddu Jamali. The Congress is not contesting the bypolls.
When asked about why Akhilesh Yadav has not campaigned for Rampur and Azamgarh bypolls so far, a senior party leader not wishing to be named said: “The SP will win both the seats and the party president will visit the constituencies to give thanks to the voters after the victory”.
However, SP’s Azamgarh district unit president Havaldar Singh said: “Yes, Tuesday is the last day for the campaign. And so far, there is no finality about the national president campaigning here. Moreover, the district unit had not made any proposal to the state unit seeking a campaign by the national president (Akhilesh Yadav). We are enough to win the seat. Senior party leaders Ramgopal Yadav, RLD president Jayant Chaudhary, the SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar have all campaigned for Dharmendra ji. He will win.”
“If Akhilesh does not campaign in Rampur and Azamgarh, it would not be something entirely new. Before this when the SP had won all the bypolls seats--Gorakhpur, Phulpur, Kairana Lok Sabha and Noorpur assembly--in 2018, Akhilesh had not campaigned,” said another senior party leader.
Akhilesh had also not campaigned in 2019 bypolls to eleven assembly seats of which the SP had won two. On Thursday (June 16), Akhilesh issued a detailed appeal to the voters in Rampur and Azamgarh to ensure victory of his party candidates.
