YADAVS HAVE EDGE IN AZAMGARH

Lucknow: The YadavMuslim factor has dominated the Lok Sabha seat of this city, which has been the birthplace of many eminent personalities of the literary world. It is worth mentioning that the bye-election was necessitated after Akhilesh Yadav, who was MP from Azamgarh, resigned after he won the recent assembly elections from the Karhal seat of Mainpuri district.

According to the data released by the Election Commission for the year 2019, the Azamgarh Lok Sabha constituency had around 17 lakh registered voters. In terms of population, out of these, the upper castes constitute 17 per cent, Dalits 25 percent and OBCs are close to 40 percent. Among the OBCs, around 21% are estimated to be non-Yadavs. Of these, 19 per cent Yadav and 18 per cent Muslim voters together form the winning combination, which has been in the role of kingmaker for many decades.

As a result of these caste equations, the winner or runner-up in this seat for six consecutive decades has been a candidate belonging to the Yadav community. In the 15 general elections and two by-elections held since 1962, thirteen times the candidates of the Yadav community won the elections. Muslim candidates have succeeded thrice, including veteran leaders like Mohsina Kidwai and Akbar Ahmed Dumpy. In 1962, Ram Harakh Yadav of Congress was elected MP. In 1967 and again in 1971, Chandrajit Yadav of Congress won the elections. In 1977, Ram Naresh Yadav of the Janata Party got success. Congress’s Mohsina Kidwai won the 1978 by-election. In 1980, Chandrajit Yadav became an MP from the Janata Party (Secular). In 1984, Santosh Singh of Congress won the elections. In 1989, Ram Krishna Yadav became the first BSP MP from here. In 1991, Chandrajit Yadav of Janata Dal got a chance to become an MP again. But in 1996, Ramakant Yadav was elected MP as a SP candidate. In 1998, Akbar Ahmed became an MP as a candidate of BSP. In 1999, Ramakant Yadav of SP got success. In 2004, Ramakant Yadav joined the BSP and won. In the 2008 by-elections, Akbar Ahmed won as a BSP candidate.

In 2014,SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav won the seat with a 35.4 percent vote share by defeating Ramakant Yadav, who secured 28.9 percent votes and in the year 2019, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav won the seat with a 60.4 percent vote share while BJP’s Dinesh Lal aka Nirahua was the runner-up with 35.1 percent votes.