Uttar Pradesh, May 23,2024.
The Samajwadi Party is haunted by the memories of the defeat in its bastion of Azamgarh in a bypoll in June 2022, which was necessitated after party chief Akhilesh Yadav vacated the Lok Sabha constituency to become Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly. This time, though, the party seems to be in a better position – after having managed to get the “main factor” for their defeat in the bypoll on their side.
The bypoll defeat had come just two months after the SP won all the Assembly segments falling under the Azamgarh constituency, as well as all five under the neighbouring Lalganj, in the March 2022 state elections.
The SP believed the reason for the defeat of its candidate Dharmendra Yadav was the presence of Shah Alam a.k.a Guddu Jamali on the BSP ticket, splitting the Muslim vote and helping the BJP’s candidate, Bhojpuri film actor Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’, win.