The BSP’s grip over the electorate in Uttar Pradesh in the assembly elections was also reflected in the Lok Sabha by-elections held in three constituencies. It retained all three seats — Mirzapur, Robertsganj and Bilhaur — with convincing margins.
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The by-elections were held after the resignations of the three BSP MPs — Lal Chandra Kol (Robertsganj), Narendra Kushwaha (Mirzapur) and Raja Ram Pal (Bilhaur) — for their alleged involvement in cash-for-query scam.
The party’s tally in the Lok Sabha remains at 19.
BSP candidate Ramesh Dubey won Mirzapur Lok Sabha seat defeating his nearest rival Ramrati Bind of Samajwadi Party. Former bandit queen-turned-actress Seema Parihar was in the fray in this constituency that used to be represented by late bandit queen-turned-politician Phoolan Devi.
Sunil Shastri, former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s son, also fought from here.
A former BJP candidate, Shastri has floated his own outfit, called Jai Jawan Jai Kissan Mazdoor Congress.
In Bilhaur, Anil Shukla of the BSP defeated Lal Singh Tomar of the SP. In Robertsganj, BSP nominee Bhai Lal Kol too defeated SP candidate Pakaudi Lal.
Rajesh Kumar Singh is Assistant Editor, Hindustan Times, at the political bureau in Lucknow. An Alumnus of Ramjas College, Delhi and the University of Delhi, he has covered politics in the Hindi heartland Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for three decades and has written extensively on Dalit and OBC politics. He travelled across Uttar Pradesh to cover the panchayat, assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Along with writing on development issues, governance and public policy has done crime reporting, including Maoist activities in Bihar as well as activities of gangsters in East Uttar Pradesh, Jungle Party gang active on UP- Bihar border, dacoit gangs in Bundelkhand region and Sand Mafia active in various districts of UP. Has done investigations and reporting exposing multi-crore NRHM scam in UP, Nutrition scam, Medicine supply scam, irregularities in the flood management projects, weapon smuggling and human trafficking on Indo- Nepal border. He highlighted the deaths of children due to encephalitis in the districts of East Uttar Pradesh; the central and state government took cognisance of the report to launch schemes to check deaths and improve the facilities in the health centres and hospitals. He also reported on the social issues in East Uttar Pradesh and Bundelkhand- migration, farming crisis, water crisis, plight of the deprived communities- Musahar, Vantongiyas, Sahariya and Kol communities. He covers state government departments. He also travels to write human-interest stories and in-depth stories from the ground in the Bundelkhand, Purvanchal, and Rohilkhand regions of Uttar Pradesh.
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