BSP to not contest Rampur LS bypoll, will fight Azamgarh ‘with full strength’

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She said that she has asked the party cadre to follow her instructions and execute the assigned tasks in Rampur.

Shortly after the results of the Assembly elections were announced in March, Mayawati had announced that BSP had picked former MLA Shah Alam alias Guddu Jamali as its candidate for the Azamgarh Lok Sabha bypoll.

By fielding Jamali, BSP is hoping to get more Muslim votes.

The bypolls in Azamgarh and Rampur were necessitated after SP leaders Akhilesh Yadav and Azam Khan resigned as MPs from the seats after winning in the 2022 Assembly elections.

While Akhilesh was elected as an MLA from Karhal assembly seat. Azam was elected from Rampur Sadar constituency. The two Lok Sabha seats would go to poll on June 23.

Samajwadi Party had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the BSP and Azam had won from Rampur. In 2014, the BSP had contested from the seat but ended up getting just 8.47 per cent votes.

Earlier in May, Mayawati had come out in support of Azam who had been lodged in Sitapur jail for around two years in connection with more than 80 cases including corruption and land grabbing and, was granted bail recently.

The former chief minister had said that his continued confinement amounted to “strangling of justice” by the BJP government in the state.

While Mayawati and Azam have had their share of run-ins in the past, ahead of the 2019 polls, the two leaders had praised each other in public.

Mayawati had addressed a rally in favour of Khan in Rampur in 2019 and predicted a “historic win” for him. Azam returned the favour, telling supporters at another meeting that he would “make the Rampur collector clean Mayawati’s shoes”.

However, this mutual admiration lasted only as long as the alliance lasted – for about five months.