Yogi appoints two key aides to oversee LS by-polls

Lucknow: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has appointed two of his senior most ministers, finance minister Suresh Khanna and agriculture minister Surya Pratap Shahi, to overesee the party’s campaign and ensure victory of BJP candidates in the Rampur and Azamgarh Lok Sabha by-polls.

The decision was taken by Yogi while presiding over a meeting of his council of ministers convened to discuss the prevailing political situation and work out a strategy for the by-election to the two Lok Sabha seats. Yogi said that Suresh Khanna and Surya Pratap Shahi would work as election in-charges for Rampur and Azamgarh seats, respectively. As a large number of ministers would also camp in the two Lok Sabha constituencies for campaigning in coming days, the duo would be exempted from the divisional/district tours during the period, Yogi said.

Months after the Assembly elections, the focus has shifted to the crucial Lok Sabha bypolls in Azamgarh and Rampur. The by-election to the two seats is scheduled for June 23. The counting of votes will be on June 26.

Both the seats are considered as bastions of the Samajwadi Party (SP), one held by party president Akhilesh Yadav and the other by the party’s veteran leader Azam Khan. The SP managed to win the seats even as BJP swept the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in the state. But, reported differences between the two leaders, whose election to the state Assembly necessitated the by-elections, may have implications for the outcome of the battle in Rampur. The SP won all 10 assembly segments in Azamgarh in this year’s polls, one reason why the seat is high on BJP’s priority.

Like in 2022 assembly polls, the bypolls are also seen essentially as a contest between SP and BJP even as the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded a prominent candidate, Shah Alam, in Azamgarh.

Alam quit the Samajwadi Party before the assembly polls after failing to get a ticket.

While the ruling party has fielded Bhojpuri singer Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ from Azamgarh Lok Sabha constituency, Ghanshyam Lodhi is in fray from Rampur Lok Sabha seat from BJP.

Not surprisingly, therefore, the seats are on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s “priority list” as the ruling party sees it as an opportunity to make inroads into the Opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) strongholds in Uttar Pradesh.