UP bypolls result: BJP candidate Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi wins Rampur Lok Sabha seat

Lodhi got over 3.67 lakh votes whereas Asim Raja scored around 3.23 lakh votes. NOTA voted third most number of votes—4,447. The BSP did not contest the Rampur bypoll and that helped the BJP with shifting Dalit votes.

Samajwadi Party’s Rampur district president Virendra Goyal alleged the ruling BJP misused its power to win the seat. “The BJP candidate has been declared the winner. But the administration has done something wrong in counting. Earlier, voters turnout on polling day remained low because the administration did not allow SP voters to come out to vote,” said Goyal.

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The by-election in the Rampur Lok Sabha seat was necessitated following the resignation of Azam Khan after his election to UP Vidhan Sabha from Rampur Sadar. Azam had won from Rampur in the Lok Sabha election in 2019 when the SP had an alliance with the BSP and the RLD.

In 2014, BJP’s Nepal Singh—who was also Lodhi—had won the Rampur seat but with a thin margin of 23,435 votes.

Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi, who is an OBC, is a former SP MLC who had started his political career with the BJP but he switched sides later. He had contested the Lok Sabha elections from Rampur as a BSP candidate in 2009 but finished third. He was elected a member of the UP Legislative Council from the Rampur-Bareilly local authorities constituency in 2016 as an SP candidate. His term expired in March this year.

During the assembly polls, he had joined the BJP in Lucknow in January this year. He was demanding a ticket for MLC polls in local authorities elections but the BJP had denied it.

In Rampur, BJP had deployed over 16 ministers for canvassing and management of the elections-related party activities. On the other hand, SP had left the responsibility of Rampur to Azam Khan.

The SP had focused more on canvassing in Azamgarh where the bypoll was necessitated after the resignation of party national president Akhilesh Yadav. Counting was in progress in Azamgarh and the BJP was leading thee with a margin of over 10,000 votes.