Azad Samaj Party (ASP)-Kanshi Ram leader and Bhim Army founder Chandrashekhar Azad ‘Ravan’ is leading by more than 50,000 votes in Uttar Pradesh’s Nagina constituency.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Om Kumar is trailing behind Samajwadi Party (SP)’s Manoj Kumar and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)’s Surendra Pal Singh.
Azad, also an Ambedkarite and an anti-caste activist, had refused to ally with the INDIA alliance. It is the first Lok Sabha election of the ASP, which is only a four-year-old party, with teapot as its election symbol.
With Ravan’s radical call for social transformation and advocacy for the “rule of the poor,” ASP emerged as a counterforce to the BSP. It raised the slogan “Saari Party Dekh Li, Ab Ki Baar Ketli (We have tested all parties, now it is teapot’s turn)” during the run upto the polls.
The BSP’s Girish Chandra had won Nagina, a reserved constituency which includes over 3.5 lakh Dalit voters, in the 2019 polls.
With Azad leading, not only the BSP but also the SP-Congress alliance and the BJP are concerned about losing their support base to ASP.