Considered a pocket borough of senior Samajwadi Party leader Mohammad Azam Khan, Rampur assembly constituency again reposed faith in the Khans by electing his wife Tazeen Fatima.
Besides, the SP wrested one seat each from Bharatiya Janata Party and Bahujan Samaj Party in the UP assembly bypolls, the results of which were announced on Thursday.
Samajwadi Party won three seats — Rampur, Zaidpur in Barabanki and Jalalpur in Ambedkarnagar
In Zaidpur, SP candidate Gaurav Kumar defeated BJP candidate Ambrish by 4,165 votes while in Jalalpur, its candidate Subhash Rai defeat BSP’s Chhaya Verma by 790 votes.
In the 2017 election, the Zaidpur seat was won by the BJP and the Jalalpur seat by the BSP.
This was first election after Lok Sabha which the SP and the BSP contested separately.
In five out of 11 constituencies, SP candidates came second while BSP candidates were runners-up in two constituencies.
For the SP, the results could be a morale booster as during Lok Sabha it could win just five seats against the 10 won by the BSP.
“The SP performed very well despite government interference. Had officers not worked as BJP workers, the SP would have won seven seats,” SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said in Lucknow on Thursday.
All eyes were on Rampur, the seat which was vacated by Azam Khan after he was elected to the Lok Sabha in the 2019 elections.
Implicated in over 80 cases, including 28 of land grabbing, theft, dacoity, among other charges, Azam Khan addressed public gatherings in favour of his wife and broke down several times while seeking votes for Tazeen Fatma. He accused the state government of political vendetta.
Interestingly, the fielding of Muslim candidates by Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party and speculation of division of Muslim votes failed in Rampur as Tazeen Fatma comfortably won the seat.
The BSP had fielded former customs officer Zuber Masood Khan while the Congress had fielded a Muslim, Arshad Ali Khan. Khan had left the grand old party in 2012 and joined the Samajwadi Party before returning to the Congress fold in 2017.
The Rampur seat has been with Azam Khan since 1980, except once in 1996 when it was won by a Congress candidate.
The BJP had fielded Bharat Bhushan who had contested election on BSP ticket in 2012 assembly polls but had received only 16,570 votes.
The Yogi Adityanath government had made it a prestige issue to win the Rampur seat election. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had addressed a rally while cine star Jaya Prada had camped there for many days and addressed several election meetings. Senior ministers and office-bearers of the BJP had also worked hard to ensure the BJP’s victory in Rampur. But all these efforts failed.