The BJP made a huge dent in the Congress strongholds of Rae Bareli and Amethi. The BJP won six of the 10 seats in the two districts, four of them in Amethi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha constituency.
The Congress lost all four seats it contested in Amethi. In 2012, the BJP had not won a single seat in Amethi and Rae Bareli.
The bigger embarrassment for the Samajwadi Party (SP)-Congress alliance came in Rae Bareli and Amethi. In Rae Bareli, the BJP won two seats, while coming a close second in another two. In Amethi, the BJP won four, while the SP’s Rakesh Pratap Singh won Gauriganj, where the SP and the Congress were locked in a friendly fight.
The BJP won Bachhrawa and Sareni, where the Congress stood a miserable third. The Congress scraped past the BJP by a thin margin in Harchandpur, while the SP won a similar fashion in Unchahar. The saving grace came in the form of Aditi Singh, daughter of local strongman Akhilesh Singh, who secured a comfortable win. She got 1,28,319 votes against the BSP candidate’s 39,156.
The Congress’ performance was even worse in Amethi. The BJP won Tiloi with a comfortable lead over the BSP, beat the Congress in Jagdishpur and Salon, while sneaking past the SP in the Amethi seat.
Friendly fight
In Amethi, the SP and Congress had to pay for their friendly fight. The BJP’s Garima Sinh beat out the challenge from the SP’s Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, who lost by 5,000 votes. Garima is the estranged first wife of Congress leader Sanjay Sinh. His present wife Ameeta Sinh was also in the fray and came fourth with 20,291 votes.
In Rampur, the SP leader Azam Khan won comfortably. He got 1,02,100 votes against the BJP’s Shiv Bahadur Saxena’s 55,258.
In Suar, Azam’s son Abdullah had a winning debut
In Jaswantnagar, Akhilesh Yadav’s estranged uncle Shivpal Yadav won comfortably. He secured a mammoth1,26,834 votes.
