Battleground Azamgarh: To retain Akhilesh’s former seat, BJP banks on Modi blitz

As the BJP looks to increase its tally in the key battleground of Uttar Pradesh, the party is already focussing on key constituencies winning which will be crucial if it has to inch closer to its stated goal of bagging 370 seats.

Among these UP constituencies is Azamgarh that was considered a stronghold of the Samajwadi Party (SP) for decades till the BJP wrested its control from the SP in a bypoll in 2022. Now, it is a priority for the party to retain it. Illustrating the importance that the BJP has attached to the constituency, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address a public meeting in Azamgarh on Sunday, a day after he arrives in his constituency Varanasi. In Azamgarh, the PM is also scheduled to lay the foundation stone and inaugurate projects worth more than Rs 400 crore.

The SP has won Azamgarh in four out of nine elections since 1996, including in 2019 when party president Akhilesh Yadav won it, taking over from his father and party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav who had won the constituency in 2014. Though Akhilesh defeated the BJP’s Dinesh Lal Yadav by almost 3 lakh votes, the BJP candidate managed to poll more than three 3 lakh votes, a sizeable number. This came into play in 2022 when the SP president vacated Azamgarh to retain his Assembly seat. In a close bypoll contest that followed, Dinesh defeated the SP’s Dharmendra Yadav, Akhilesh’s cousin.

By pitching the PM to campaign from Azamgarh so early in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP has indicated that retaining the seat is going to be the focal point of its campaign in the state’s Purvanchal region. On February 13, the BJP sent Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav to Azamgarh in an outreach to Yadav voters in the constituency. During