4 min readLucknowMar 9, 2024 08:05 AM IST
First published on: Mar 8, 2024 at 06:00 PM IST
As the BJP looks to increase its tally in the key battleground of Uttar Pradesh, the party is already focussing on key constituencies winning which will be crucial if it has to inch closer to its stated goal of bagging 370 seats.
Among these UP constituencies is Azamgarh that was considered a stronghold of the Samajwadi Party (SP) for decades till the BJP wrested its control from the SP in a bypoll in 2022. Now, it is a priority for the party to retain it. Illustrating the importance that the BJP has attached to the constituency, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address a public meeting in Azamgarh on Sunday, a day after he arrives in his constituency Varanasi. In Azamgarh, the PM is also scheduled to lay the foundation stone and inaugurate projects worth more than Rs 400 crore.
The SP has won Azamgarh in four out of nine elections since 1996, including in 2019 when party president Akhilesh Yadav won it, taking over from his father and party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav who had won the constituency in 2014. Though Akhilesh defeated the BJP’s Dinesh Lal Yadav by almost 3 lakh votes, the BJP candidate managed to poll more than three 3 lakh votes, a sizeable number. This came into play in 2022 when the SP president vacated Azamgarh to retain his Assembly seat. In a close bypoll contest that followed, Dinesh defeated the SP’s Dharmendra Yadav, Akhilesh’s cousin.
By pitching the PM to campaign from Azamgarh so early in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP has indicated that retaining the seat is going to be the focal point of its campaign in the state’s Purvanchal region. On February 13, the BJP sent Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav to Azamgarh in an outreach to Yadav voters in the constituency. During the visit to Azamgarh and his recent address to a Yadav convention in Lucknow, the Madhya Pradesh CM emphasised that his ancestors had migrated from Azamgarh to Madhya Pradesh and that his in-laws were from the state. At both events, in a dig at the SP, he asked Yadavs to think of themselves as “a community” and to look beyond the welfare of just “one family”. The message — that the SP treats even its core vote bank of Yadavs from different regions differently — is expected to be a theme of the campaign.
About the PM’s Sunday rally, a BJP leader said, “It will be a big rally, where people from neighbouring districts will also participate. Apart from that, the PM will gift development projects to Azamgarh and nearby places. There will also be a display of local ODOP (One District-One Product) items being promoted by the government.”
On March 3, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath personally reviewed the preparations for the Azamgarh rally, including the site of the public meeting. Sources said that apart from inaugurating the Mundri Airport in Azamgarh the PM is likely to inaugurate a state university there named after Maharaja Suheldev, the legendary 17th-Century ruler who is an icon among the Rajbhar OBC community. Last month, the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) returned to the NDA fold and earlier this week its chief Om Prakash Rajbhar was included in the UP Cabinet.
BJP leaders said that along with the PM and the CM, prominent Yadav and non-Yadav OBC faces of the party in Purvanchal would be seen on the dais at Azamgarh on Sunday.
Leading the INDIA bloc challenge in the state, the SP is leaving no stone unturned to wrest back its former bastion. Last month, it inducted former BSP MLA Shah Alam, popularly known as “Guddu Jamali”, who is a popular leader in Azamgarh. The former MLA from Mubarakpur, which is one of the Assembly segments in Azamgarh, was once a close associate of BSP chief Mayawati. The BSP fielded him in the 2022 by-election and he came third. He polled almost 2.7 lakh votes, roughly the same as the margin by which Akhilesh Yadav won the seat in 2019.
The SP has won Azamgarh in four out of nine elections since 1996, including in 2019 when party president Akhilesh Yadav won it, taking over from his father and party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav. (Express file photo) 
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