One of the most closely watched battles of not only in Uttar Pradesh but in India, Rampur Lok Sabha constituency will go to polls on April 23. One of the 80 seats in UP, Rampur is currently held by the BJP’s Dr Nepal Singh who won the seat for the first time in 2014 by defeating SP's Naseer Ahmad Khan with a margin of just over 23,000 votes.
The constituency known for sending to Lok Sabha India's first education minister, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, is now at the centre of a bitter battle between the Samajwadi Party's Azam Khan and BJP's Jaya Prada. With Congress throwing its hat in the ring and fielding Sanjay Kapoor, the fight in Rampur has become triangular.
The only Muslim majority district in UP, Rampur has been won by the BJP only thrice. Once at the height of Ayodhya movement in 1991, again in 1998 when it fielded a Muslim candidate - Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and in 2014 at the back of the Narendra Modi wave. This time, however, the BJP has dropped its sitting MP Nepal Singh and has fielded Jaya Prada who represented the city in Lok Sabha twice - 2004-09 and 2009-14 - as Samajwadi Party MP before she fell out of favours with Azam Khan.
Azam Khan, who claims to have brought Jaya Prada to Rampur, is now her opponent. This is his first Lok Sabha election from Rampur.
He has faced the wrath of both his opponents and the Election Commission for his controversial remarks against Jaya Prada. Khan was banned from campaigning for 72 hours by the Election Commission over a 'khaki' underwear jibe at BJP candidate Jaya Prada.
On April 15, Khan, while addressing an election rally, had allegedly made derogatory remarks against actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada, his BJP opponent in Rampur.
"I brought her (Jaya Prada) to Rampur. You are a witness that I did not allow anyone to touch her body. It took you 17 years to identify her real face but I got to know in 17 days that she wears khaki underwear," Khan had said.
With two contestants exchanging words and joint rally by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samajwadi Party supremo Mayawati, Rampur has become one of the most keenly watched battles this election.
The Parliamentary constituency comprises five legislative assembly segments - Suar, Chamraua, Bilaspura, Rampur and Milak.
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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