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The Times of India
The Times of India
National
Rajeev Dikshit | TNN

Uttar Pradesh: Over 18 lakh voters to decide fate of 13 candidates in Azamgarh bypoll today

VARANASI: Around 18.36 lakh voters will on Thursday decide the fate of 13 candidates contesting the Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat byelection by casting their votes at 2,136 polling booths.

The polling staff started heading to their respective polling stations in the district on Wednesday morning.

Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat has seen the dominance of Yadavs and Muslims. In 17 general elections and two byelections for the seat, Yadav candidates won 13 times while Muslim candidates emerged victorious thrice.

This time again, there are two Yadavs, Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ of BJP and Dharmendra Yadav of SP, and a Muslim candidate Shah Alam alias Guddu Jamali fielded by BSP, among the main contenders.

District election officer Vishal Bhardwaj said, “Nearly 18.36 lakh voters across Gopalpur, Sagadi, Mubarakpur, Azamgarh Sadar and Mehnagar assembly constituencies covered by the Lok Sabha seat will exercise their franchise at 2,136 polling booths of Azamgarh parliamentary constituency on Thursday.”

“Around 10,000 polling staff left for their polling booths with EVMs amid tight security. There will be 15 zonal and 136 sector magistrates for monitoring while webcasting will be done from 1,600 booths,” he added.

SP Anurag Arya said 6,000 policemen and 68 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed besides home guards to ensure peaceful polling.

The past record of Azamgarh LS constituency elections shows that except for 1952, 1957, 1987 and 1998, Yadav candidates emerged victorious in 13 general elections while a Muslim candidate Akbar Ahmad ‘Dumpy’ of BSP had succeeded in 1998.

The seat witnessed its first byelection in 1978 when late Ram Naresh Yadav had resigned to become chief minister of Janata Party led government in UP after winning the 1977 LS poll on Bharatiya Lok Dal ticket in the same year.

Mohsina Kidwai of Congress had won the byelection in 1978 by defeating JP’s Ram Bachan Yadav. The second byelection was held following the disqualification of BSP MP Ramakant Yadav for defecting to SP in 2008 and was won by BSP’s Dumpy.

The third byelection is taking place after SP chief Akhilesh Yadav resigned after winning Karhal assembly seat in assembly elections.

As SP-BSP alliance candidate, Akhilesh had bagged 6,21,578 votes in 2019 to defeat BJP’s Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ by 2,59,874 votes. BJP has reposed faith in Nirahua while SP has fielded former Badaun MP Dharmendra Yadav. BSP has fielded ex-MLA Shah Alam alias Guddu Jamali, who had polled 2,66,528 votes in 2014.

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