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Updated December 8th, 2022 at 10:36 IST

Azam Khan's protege Asim Raja races to victory in Rampur bypoll; BJP's Akash Saxena trails

BJP's Akash Saxena has managed to bag 2,543 votes, however, he is significantly lagging behind the Azam Khan's protege and SP's Md Asim Raja.

Reported by: Harsh Vardhan
Rampur Bypoll
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While surging ahead in the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly results, the BJP is also putting up a tough fight in the Rampur Sadar bypoll in Uttar Pradesh where the counting is underway. Considered a turf of Samajwadi Party's (SP) MLA Azam Khan, BJP's Akash Saxena has managed to bag 2543 and a 30.09% vote share. However, he is significantly lagging behind the former's protege and SP's Md Asim Raja (5,767 votes and 68.25% vote share), according to the Election Commission's latest numbers.

The Rampur bypoll was conducted on December 5 along with five other constituencies--  UP's Khatauli, Padampur in Odisha, Sardarshahar in Rajasthan, Kurhani in Bihar and Bhanupratappur in Chhattisgarh-- and a parliamentary seat in Mainpuri. The bypoll in Mainpuri took place due to the death of Samajwadi Party (SP) founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, while the bypoll in Rampur Sadar and Khatauli were necessitated after Azam Khan and BJP MLA Vikram Singh Saini were disqualified following their conviction in separate cases.

SP inching closer to victory

The controversies surrounding Azam Khan seem to have had no effect on the bypoll results as SP's Asim Raja is inching closer to victory by a huge margin. Azam Khan's name was removed from the electoral roll in November weeks after he was convicted in an alleged hate speech case dating 2019. Notably, the complaint was filed by Saxena who cited various provisions of law to seek the deletion of his name.

Recently, he was booked for his alleged insulting remarks on women during an election meeting ahead of the Rampur bypoll. The complainant, Shahnaz Begum lodged the complaint on the basis of an audio clip where he was allegedly heard making insulting remarks during the meeting where Asim Raja was also present. Apart from this, he was named in an FIR filed earlier this month for his "provocative" words against the Police and the Election Commission of India. Despite all this, SP has maintained a grip in certain constituencies in UP especially Mainpuri, where Dimple Yadav is leading with 53,954 votes, more than double the votes bagged by BJP's Raghuraj Singh Shakya (22,479).  

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Published December 8th, 2022 at 10:36 IST

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