The campaign for the June 23 Lok Sabha bypolls to Azamgarh and Rampur seats intensified on Saturday with several leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) joining the campaign.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath is also expected to join the bypoll campaign on Sunday. Ahead of his visit, senior ministers who campaigned for BJP in Azamgarh and Rampur referred to these by-polls as “dharm yudh (religious war)” and one of them also referred to Azamgarh as ‘Aryamgarh’ to flag the BJP’s “rename Azamgarh” demand.
In Azamgarh, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has fielded party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s cousin Dharmendra Yadav against Bhojpuri singer Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ of the BJP. In 2019 LS polls, Akhilesh had defeated ‘Nirahua’.
“It’s like a ‘dharm yudh’ where you have to side with the right and the BJP is the one that is doing so,” said state’s urban development and energy minister AK Sharma while campaigning in Azamgarh’s Gopalpur and Sadar assembly segments.
U.P. BJP chief and Jal Shakti minister Swatantra Dev also drew religious analogy during his campaign on Saturday. Since Azamgarh has a sizeable number of Rajbhars, mostly considered loyal to Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) whose chief Om Prakash Rajbhar has been pitching for the SP here, Swatantra Dev began his campaign by invoking “Maharaja Suheldev” before referring to sage Durvasa.
{{/usCountry}}U.P. BJP chief and Jal Shakti minister Swatantra Dev also drew religious analogy during his campaign on Saturday. Since Azamgarh has a sizeable number of Rajbhars, mostly considered loyal to Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) whose chief Om Prakash Rajbhar has been pitching for the SP here, Swatantra Dev began his campaign by invoking “Maharaja Suheldev” before referring to sage Durvasa.
{{/usCountry}}“Azamgarh used to be the place where sage Durvasa prayed. Azamgarh may have given chief ministers, it may have sent Lok Sabha MPs, but the district’s identity took a severe hit. Under the guidance of PM Narendra Modi and leadership of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Azamgarh is well on way to becoming Aryamgarh,” Swatantra Dev said.
CM Yogi had in 2021 also referred to Azamgarh as “Aryamgarh” and ahead of his campaign, Swatantra Dev’s reference to “Aryamgarh” has once again led to speculations about the BJP government looking to rename the district.
It’s going to be a triangular contest in Azamgarh where apart from the SP and the BJP, the BSP has queered the campaign with its “local vs outsider” pitch while in Rampur, with BSP opting out of the contest, it is likely to be a bipolar contest between SP and BJP. The Congress has opted out of the bypolls altogether.
In Rampur, finance minister Suresh Khanna campaigned along with panchayati raj minister Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary and PWD minister Jitin Prasada on Saturday, urging the people to give “vikas” (development) a chance. Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya would campaign in Rampur on Sunday
The bypolls to these seats were necessitated as SP chief Akhilesh Yadav quit Azamgarh and party veteran Azam Khan quit Rampur Lok Sabha seat on being elected lawmakers to the U.P. assembly in the 2022 elections.
The SP has fielded Asim Raza, an Azam Khan loyalist in Rampur, who is pitted against ex-Khan loyalist Ghanshyam Lodhi, contesting this time on a BJP ticket.