This story is from January 4, 2022

Chinks in BSP’s Ambedkarnagar castle: 3 MLAs in ’17 to none now

A constituency which has been known as BSP founder Kanshiram’s lab and from where Mayawati has won at least four elections will prove to be a major challenge for BSP in the 2022 state elections. The party, which won three of five assembly seats in Ambedkar Nagar in 2017, now has none.
Chinks in BSP’s Ambedkarnagar castle: 3 MLAs in ’17 to none now
Lucknow: A constituency which has been known as BSP founder Kanshiram’s lab and from where Mayawati has won at least four elections will prove to be a major challenge for BSP in the 2022 state elections.
The party, which won three of five assembly seats in Ambedkar Nagar in 2017, now has none. On Monday, the father of its Ambedkar Nagar MP Ritesh Pandey, himself a former BSP MP from Ambedkar Nagar, joined SP.

He was reportedly miffed over the party’s decision to give the ticket from his bastion of Jalalpur to a political rival.
In 2017, two of the five assembly constituencies under Ambedkar Nagar Lok Sabha seat were won by BJP: Gosainganj and Tanda.
The remaining three were won by BSP: Katehari by Lalji Verma, Akbarpur by Ram Achal Rajbhar and Jalalpur by Ritesh Pandey. In 2019, Pandey resigned after winning the Lok Sabha elections but BSP lost the seat to SP’s Subhash Rai. In 2021, Mayawati expelled Verma and Rajbhar for anti-party activities and they subsequently joined SP.
Sources within BSP say that the constituency has been a major stronghold of the party, where about 70% of the population comprises OBCs and SCs. Mayawati has won her way to Parliament thrice from here. Ritesh continues to remain in BSP and is the leader of the party in Lok Sabha. Meanwhile, his uncle, his father’s brother Pawan, could become the challenger to SP from Katehari.
“The Pandey family politics is above us. However, it is also true that Samajwadi Party has a strong support base in the constituency, the birth place of Ram Manohar Lohia. This has only strengthened after the move of Rajbhar and Verma, two OBC leaders, to SP. If SP fields the right candidates, all five seats are for it to take. This will be a close fight between SP and BSP,” said a party insider.
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