Mainpuri goes to SP's bahu Dimple, BJP ends Azam Khan era in Rampur but loses Khatauli

In the three bypolls in Uttar Pradesh, BJP has won the Rampur Sadar, lost Khatauli assembly seat and the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat. In Rampur Sadar, BJP has created history by winning the seat for the first time, completely dethroning Azam Khan from Rampur. 

• In Rampur, BJP's Akash Saxena, a lawyer by profession and a longtime critic of former MLA Azam Khan, has won with by 34,136 votes. 

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also congratulated Akash Saxena on his win in Rampur.

उत्तर प्रदेश में मैनपुरी, रामपुर एवं खतौली उपचुनाव में विजयी सभी प्रत्याशियों को हार्दिक बधाई।

भारतीय जनता पार्टी ने रामपुर की सीट पर पहली बार विजय प्राप्त की है, इसके लिए श्री आकाश सक्सेना समेत रामपुर के सभी कार्यकर्ताओं को बधाई एवं जनता-जनार्दन के प्रति आभार।

— Yogi Adityanath (@myogiadityanath) December 8, 2022

• In Khatauli, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) candidate Manoj Bhaiya, a four-time MLA who last won an election 15 years ago has won the seat with 22,143 votes. 
• In Mainpuri, Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav has won with a margin of 2,88,136, as per data from Election Commission.

The three seats:

1. Mainpuri: Dimple Yadav has won the seat by a massive margin of ---. She fought against BJP's Raghuraj Singh Shakya. 

• Dimple Yadav was also the first choice of Akhilesh Yadav on a seat which has been a strong SP seat since 1996.
• SP founder Late Mulayam Singh Yadav had won the seat first time in 1996. He had also won it in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
• After his death, the seat was left vacant.
• While Akhilesh chose Dimple for the seat, BJP fielded a former aide of Shivpal Yadav, Raghuraj Singh Shakya.
• In order to prevent the split of votes, Akhilesh also buried his hatchet with his uncle Shivpal, who is an MLA from Jaswantnagar seat. The gamble worked as Dimple Yadav got massive number of votes from Jaswantnagar, which is the assembly constitutency of Shivpal Yadav. 
• In 2019, Dimple had contested from Kannauj as part of SP-BSP alliance but lost the seat.

Rampur Sadar: The Rampur Sadar is heading towards a historic verdict as the BJP is on its way to successfully wrest the seat from Azam Khan who has represented the seat for the past four decades. BJP's Akash Saxena got 81,432 votes against SP's Asim Raja who ended up with 47,296 votes. Congress and BSP did not field their candidates in the Rampur bypoll.

उत्तर प्रदेश में मैनपुरी, रामपुर एवं खतौली उपचुनाव में विजयी सभी प्रत्याशियों को हार्दिक बधाई।

भारतीय जनता पार्टी ने रामपुर की सीट पर पहली बार विजय प्राप्त की है, इसके लिए श्री आकाश सक्सेना समेत रामपुर के सभी कार्यकर्ताओं को बधाई एवं जनता-जनार्दन के प्रति आभार।

— Yogi Adityanath (@myogiadityanath) December 8, 2022

• The Rampur seat was left vacant as former MLA Azam Khan was disqualified from the seat after his conviction in a hate speech case from 2019.
• Khan fielded his aide, Mohammad Asim Raja from the seat, whom he had fielded in the Rampur Parliamentary bypoll also but lost the seat.
• Azam Khan had also complained of excessive police force against the Muslim voters saying that the authorities worked for his defeat. 

  #MainpuriByElection | "Barbarism being done and people being arrested, beaten up. Police are going to colonies and telling people not to step out to vote. People in one colony locked up their houses and migrated in fear": Azam Khan, Samajwadi Party | reported by ANI pic.twitter.com/Ma2LRVKUig

  — NDTV (@ndtv) December 5, 2022

• Rampur had also recorded a low turnout of 33% this time.

Khatauli: From Khatuali, RLD's Madan Bhaiya won with 97,139 votes against BJP's Rajkumari who has 74,996 votes. 

• The Khatauli seat was left vacant after its BJP MLA Vikram Singh Saini was disqualified after his recent conviction in a case related to Muzaffarnagar riots.
• From this seat, RLD fielded its candidate, Madan Bhaiya, a four-term MLA who last won an election 15 years ago. Madan consecutively lost assembly polls in 2012, 2017 and 2022 from Loni in Ghaziabad.