Lallu Singh: Sitting MP, Leader In Ram Mandir Movement To Field From Faizabad (image:twitter.com/LalluSinghBJP)
Lallu Singh is a two-time sitting BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh”s Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency. In the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, he is seeking a hat-trick win from the constituency. Lallu Singh was one of the prominent figures of the Ram Mandir movement and also among the 32 accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case.
Lallu Singh started his political journey as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pracharak in 1980. In 1986, he became the state organisation minister of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the youth wing of the BJP. Following this, in 1988, Lallu Singh became the BJP District President. His entry into electoral politics was in 1991, and for five consecutive times (from 1991 to 2007), Lallu Singh has been elected as a MLA for the Ayodhya assembly segment.
In his first Lok Sabha polls in 2014, Lallu Singh defeated Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Mitrasen Yadav by a margin of 2,82,775 votes. When BSP candidate Jitendra Kumar Singh occupied the third position in the election, sitting Congress MP Dr. Nirmal Khatri was relegated to the fourth position. In the 2019 elections, Lallu Singh repeated his victory at Faizabad by defeating SP candidate Ananad Sen Yadav by a margin of 65,477 votes. Though the three regional parties, Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal (SP-BSP-RLD), worked in alliance, Lallu Singu retained his position. Meanwhile, the Congress” Dr. Nirmal Khatri took the third position.
In the upcoming polls, where the Congress and SP are working together, Lallu Singh has to face the SP”s Dalit leader, Awadhesh Prasad. He is currently serving as a legislator from the Milkipur assembly segment. Awadhesh Prasad has reached the assembly a total of nine times from the Sohawal and Milkipur assembly constituencies of Ayodhya. By fielding a Dalit candidate in Faizabad, the SP hopes to gain an advantage over the BJP.
Faizabad
Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency includes the cities of Ayodhya and Faizabad. Ayodhya has been in the centre of news for the Ram Temple, and it got inaugurated in January this year. A politically-sensitive constituency, Faizabad is currently a dominion of the BJP. But, in the beginning, since the first election in 1957, the constituency has been held by the Congress. As the Ram Mandir Movement held great sway in the public and political arena, in the 1991 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won the seat for the first time. The BJP”s Vinay Katiyar was the MP from 1991 to 1996. Following the 1998 elections, the SP”s Mitrasen Yadav won the seat. However, in 1999, Vinay Katiyar retrieved the seat for the BJP.
Since the Ram Mandir slowly began to lose significance after 1999, the BJP”s next victory over the seat came only in 2014. In 2004, BSP”s Mitrasen Yadav and Congress” Nirmal Khatri won the seats, respectively. The Modi wave in 2014 brought the BJP”s comeback to Faizabad and Lallu Singh”s victory. In total, the grand old party won seven times, and the BJP five times.
In Faizabad, the saffron party encounters a strong caste-based alliance between the BSP and the SP, which includes Dalits, OBCs, and Muslims among its supporters.
