INDIA bloc won 5 of 8 MP seats with 40% Muslim majority in UP

Hyderabad: Eight Parliament seats from Uttar Pradesh with more than 40 per cent Muslim population gave a twist by helping the INDIA alliance win five seats.

Samajwadi Party won Rampur, Muzaffarnagar, Kairana and Moradabad and Congress won Saharanpur. These seats went to polls in the first phase of elections on April 19, 2024.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) retained Pilibhit seat, RLD bagged the Bijnor seat; BJP and RLD are in alliance in UP. Azad party of Chandrashekar Azad won the Nagina seat.

In the 2019 elections, the BJP won three seats – Muzaffarnagar, Kairana and Pilibhit. SP won two seats, Moradabad and Rampur and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won three seats Saharanpur, Nagina and Bijnor.

In 2024, BSP could not win any seat in this belt despite fielding candidates.

These seats are important as they have the highest Muslim population in the state, setting the mood for elections, participation in voting and also being the foothold of political parties in the region.

Here’s ECI data on the election results regarding the eight seats:

The fear of bulldozers in Rampur

Mohibullah Nadvi of the Samajwadi Party won with a margin of 87,434 votes against sitting MP Ghansyham Singh Lodhi of the BJP.

The sitting MP in 2019 was Azam Khan from SP but due to bye-elections in 2022, Lodhi was elected.

Mohibullah Nadvi is an imam of Jana Masjid near Parliament House in Delhi. He was born near Rampur city and went to Delhi for religious education in Jamia Milia. SP gave him the ticket and there were rumours of Azam Khan's family not supporting him.

Nadvi polled 49.74 per cent votes, Lodhi polled 40.71 per cent votes, and BSP candidate Zeeshan Khan polled 8.23 per cent votes.

Nadvi campaigned door-to-door to motivate Muslims to vote. The shadow of Azam Khan looms large in Rampur and most of the Muslims feared bulldozers would be used to attack their homes. For that reason, in the Assembly elections of 2022, Muslims didn’t vote.

The Muslim population here is the highest at 50.58 per cent while Scheduled Castes make up 12.9 per cent.

A close fight in Muzaffarnagar

Harendra Singh Malik of the Samajwadi Party won with a margin of 24,672 votes here. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan of the BJP was the sitting MP and was renominated due to his good track record. SP nominated Harendra Singh Malik, a Jat leader, who had contested in 2019 but lost.

The margin of vote share between Malik and Balyan is only two per cent which shows that it was a tough fight. Malik polled 43.64 per cent votes and Balyan polled 41.35 per cent votes.

BSP candidate Dara Singh polled 13 per cent votes.

Winning Kairana before 30

Twenty-seven-year-old Iqra Choudhary of the Samajwadi Party won with a margin of 69,116 votes against the sitting MP Pradeep Kumar of the BJP. Kumar was also a member of the 13th and 16th Lok Sabha.

Iqra comes from a family where her grandfather, father and mother have represented the Kiarana seat in Lok Sabha.

Her campaign was interesting as she had taken the Karnataka BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde’s remark to ‘change constitution’ as her main campaign agenda. Her campaign appealed to Muslims, Dalits and other backward communities in the constituency.

BJP retained Pilibhit

Jitin Prasada of the BJP won with a margin of 1,64,935 votes against SP candidate Bhagwat Saran Gangawar. Pilibhit sitting MP was Feroze Varun Gandhi in 2019. His mother Maneka Sanjay Gandhi was elected in 2014.

The seat is retained by the BJP. Jitin Prasada, a former Congressman switched to BJP in 2021.

Samajwadi Party candidate is Bhagwat Saran Gangwar, a five-time MLA from Nawabganj and former health minister during the SP government in 2003.

BJP also retained its vote share of 52.3 per cent and SP’s vote share was 38 per cent.

SP comfortably wins Moradabad

Ruchi Vira of the Samajwadi Party won with a margin of 1,05,762 votes against BJP’s Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar.

The sitting MP was ST Hasan who was denied a ticket and eventually didn’t campaign for the party. SP fielded Ruchi Vira, a confidante of jailed leader Azam Khan.

BSP candidate is Irfan Saifi, who was the president of Thakurdwara municipality and garnered 92,313 votes. This constituency has a Muslim population of 46.31 per cent and second highest percentage of SCs at 14.2 per cent.

SP polled 49.64 per cent votes, BJP polled 41.43 per cent and BSP polled 7.19 per cent votes.

Congress wins Saharanpur

Imran Masood from Congress won the seat with a margin of 64,542 votes defeating BJP candidate Raghav Lakhanpal.

In 2019, BSP won the Saharanpur seat by Haji Fazlur Rehman. However, he was not given the ticket. BSP gave Majid Ali a chance in 2024. He contested and lost with a margin of 3,67,614 votes. Masood polled 44.57 per cent votes, Raghav got 39.32 per cent votes and Ali got 14 per cent votes.

BSP loses Nagina to Firebrand leader

Dalit leader Chandrashekhar Azad of the Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) won the Nagina (SC reserved seat) against Om Kumar of BJP by 1,51,473 votes. SP candidate Manoj Kumar polled one lakh votes.

The sitting MP was Girish Chandra from the BSP but the party did not give him the ticket. The new face of BSP was Surendra Pal Singh who got 13,212 votes.

Azad polled 51.19 per cent votes, BJP polled 36,06 per cent votes and SP polled 10.22 per cent votes. It was a very closely contested seat.

Political legacy trumps in Bijnor

Chandhan Chauhan from Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) won with a margin of 37,508 votes. RLD is in an alliance with the BJP.

Chauhan is a member of the 18th Uttar Pradesh Assembly from Meerapur of RLD. He is the son of RLD politician Sanjay Singh Chauhan and grandson of Chaudhary Narain Singh.

SP candidate Deepak Saini, son of SP MLA Noopur Ram Avtar Saini polled 35.82 per cent votes. It was a closely contested seat as RLD polled 39.48 per cent votes and SP polled 35.82 per cent votes.

BSP Vijendra Singh polled 21.38 per cent votes.