Rajaram Pal: SP's candidate From The Akbarpur Lok Sabha Constituency

Last week, Samajwadi Party (SP) announced its 16 candidates list from the Uttar Pradesh and the party chose Rajaram Pal for the Akbarpur Lok Sabha constituency. It is a constituency which was held by different parties at different times. SP’s candidate Shankhlal Majhi won the 2004 Lok Sabha election from the seat while the Congress won the 2009 general election. After this, the BJP won two consecutive times – in 2014 and 2019. The sitting MP from the constituency is BJP”s Devendra Singh.

Born in Kanpur, Rajaram Pal completed LLB from DAV College. He began his political journey in the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) in 1996 and contested the election from Ghatampur Assembly on BSP ticket, becoming MLA for the first time in the same year. He also contested the Lok Sabha election in 2004 from the Bilhaur Lok Sabha constituency for the same party. However, after some issues emerged between him and the BSP, he joined the Congress in 2007.

In the 2009 general election, he was fielded in the Akbarpur constituency on the Congress ticket and he secured the victory. However, when he was again contested from the same constituency in 2014, he faced defeat against the BJP candidate Devendra Singh Bhole. This time, he was pushed to the third position as the SP’s Anil Shakal Warsi became the runner-up. In 2019 too, Mr Rajaram contested on the Congress ticket and came third, while the BJP won for the second time.

However, in 2021, Rajaram Pal left Congress and joined the SP. As the Samajwadi Party has placed Mr Rajaram as its candidate from the Akbarpur constituency, many political analysts believe that Mr Rajaram has a strong influence among the OBC voters in the constituency and can help the party to win the seat.