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Journalism of Courage
Dealing a blow to the Samajwadi Party (SP) in the Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha bypolls, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wrested both the constituencies, Azamgarh and Rampur, from the principal Opposition party. The setback was especially severe for the SP chief, Akhilesh Yadav, and senior SP leader Azam Khan as they had been the incumbent MPs from Azamgarh and Rampur respectively, who had vacated their seats after getting elected in the recent UP Assembly polls, which necessitated the bypolls.
While the BJP candidate Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua bagged the Azamgarh constituency, the saffron party’s nominee Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi won from Rampur seat.
Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua, Azamgarh
Dinesh Lal Yadav aka Nirahua, who breached the SP citadel in Azamgarh by defeating its candidate Dharmendra Yadav, Akhilesh’s cousin, by over 8,000 votes remained in the spotlight during the poll campaign for being a famous Bhojpuri actor-singer and for his proximity with both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
While the BJP organisation had roped in a number of ministers and leaders from different castes, especially Yadav and Bhumihar leaders, for campaigning in the Azamgarh bypoll, Nirahua, 43, had individually called his Bhojpuri film industry colleagues to campaign for him among youths and women in the constituency.
Sources in the BJP said that Adityanath has always been accessible to Nirahua, who had raised various development issues related to Azamgarh before him over the last several years. Local people have known that he was close to Adityanath and could get development works done in the area and “hence they put their trust on him,” sources said.
Although Nirahua, who belongs to the OBC community, faced the challenge of being an “outsider” in Azamgarh since he hails from Ghazipur, Adityanath, in his public meeting last week during his campaign for Nirahua, had cited the example of the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat that he had vacated in 2017 after becoming the CM, saying in the 2019 elections he fielded Ravi Kishan, a Bhojpuri actor from Jaunpur, from the seat as he wanted a youth from Purvanchal to contest from there. Ravi Kishan won the election. Adityanath thus sought to assure the gathering that if Nirahua would win the election, he will stay in Azamgarh and work for its development.
Ahead of the UP Assembly elections, Nirahua had released various videos supporting Yogi as the CM in 2022 and again in 2027.
As per his affidavit he has submitted to the Election Commission (EC) while filing his nomination papers, Nirahua’s educational qualification is intermediate from the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education. Acting in movies and agriculture are the sources of his income. “If Nirahua get some remarkable works done in Azamgarh over the next one-and-half years, especially for employment, the BJP would project him as an OBC face in the 2024 general elections while saying that Yadav leaders outside the Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family too can work for the welfare of the community,” said a party leader.
Speaking to reporters after his victory, Nirahua said he will speak to Adityanath over the proposal to change the name of Azamgarh to “Aryamgarh”.
Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi, Rampur
The 55-year-old BJP candidate from Rampur, Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi, a former SP MLC, defeated the SP’s nominee and Azam Khan’s loyalist, Asim Raja, in the bypoll with a margin of over 42,000 votes.
When Lodhi was in the SP, he was also considered a loyalist of Azam Khan. He had started his political career with the BJP but switched sides later. He had contested from Rampur as a BSP candidate in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, but finished third.
He was elected to the UP Legislative Council as an SP candidate from the Rampur-Bareilly local authorities constituency in 2016. His termed expired in March this year. Ahead of the Assembly polls, he had joined the BJP in Lucknow in January this year. He was demanding a ticket for the MLC polls in local authorities seat but the saffron party denied it while assuring him, sources said, that he would be given a bigger role in the future.
Lodhi is a known OBC leader in the Rampur, with the BJP fielding him in the bypoll as part of its efforts to strengthen its OBC vote bank in western UP. In 2014, BJP’s Nepal Singh, who was also a Lodhi leader, had won Rampur seat with a margin of 23,435 votes.
Ghanshyam’s higher victory margin may be an advantage for him in the BJP organisation in future, said a BJP leader. However, another leader said that low voter turnout coupled with strong polarisation ensured his bypoll victory.
According to his poll affidavit filed with the EC, Lodhi is a “visharad” in Hindi sahitya and that a petrol pump as well as agriculture were sources of his income.
