Budaun Lok Sabha constituency, one of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, is a prestige battle for the Samajwadi Party as party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav's nephew Dharmendra Yadav is contesting from here for the third time.
Dharmendra Yadav, son of SP patriarch's little known brother Abhay Ram Yadav, in the by-poll won his first election in 2004 from Mainpuri but was shifted to Budaun in 2009 when Mulayam again contested from Mainpuri. He was able to defeat local mafia don DP Yadav in 2009 and retained the seat in 2014 despite Modi wave.
In 2014, Yadav defeated BJP's Vagish Pathak by 1.66 lakh votes.
Budaun was a stronghold of Salim Iqbal Shervani, a former Congress leader and close friend of Rajiv Gandhi who later joined the Samajwadi Party. Shervani won from Budaun four consecutive elections - 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004 - but was denied ticket by the SP to accommodate Dharmendra Yadav. He went back to the Congress contested 2009 elections on its ticket but lost. He has again been fielded by the Congress and is contesting against Dharmendra Yadav and BJP's Sangh Mitra Maurya.
Maurya, the daughter of UP minister Swami Prasad Maurya, was recently at the centre of controversy after she asked people to cast proxy votes for those who may not be able to cast their ballot.
The Parliamentary constituency comprises five legislative assembly segments - Gunnaur, Bisauli (SC), Sahaswan, Bilsi and Badaun.
UP is facing a three-pronged battle between the BJP, the Congress and BSP-SP-RLD alliance. Under the alliance's seat-sharing formula, the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is contesting on 38 Lok Sabha seats of the total 80 seats, Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party on 37 seats and the Chaudhary Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) on three seats. The alliance has left two for Congress' Sonia Gandhi (Raebareli) and Rahul Gandhi (Amethi).
The polling for the third phase is to be held on April 23 for ten Lok Sabha seats in the Rohilkhand region of Uttar Pradesh. The results of the Lok Sabha election 2019 will be declared on May 23.
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