BJP’s Ashok Kumar Rawat Wins Misrikh For A Fourth Time

BJP Candidate Ashok Kumar Rawat won from Misrikh by garnering a total of 4,75,016 votes while Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Sangita Rajvanshi came second with 4,41,1610 votes.

Rawat is a Dalit leader and three times Misrikh MP from the constituency.

Rawat’s political entry was through the BSP by winning the Misrikh seat in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. In 2009, he retained the seat. But, vying for a third term, he suffered defeat from BJP’s Anju Bala by a margin of 87,363 votes. However, in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Ashok Kumar Rawat managed to retrieve the seat with a BJP ticket. He won by defeating the BSP candidate Neelu Satyarthi by a margin of 1,00,672 votes.

Ashok Kumar Rawat was one among the three Dalit leaders shifted to BJP from BSP ahead of 2019 elections and won. This happened after BJP realised that for getting edge in the Uttar Pradesh’s 17 reserved constituencies they need to seize the BSP’s pool of Dalit leaders.

The SP candidate Sangita Rajvanshi is 41-year-old housewife.

The Misrikh constituency belongs to Sitapur district and is known for the birthplace of the great Hindu Sage Dadhichi. The seat is reserved for Scheduled Castes since 1962. The constituency has witnessed shift of dominance of parties, however, BJP has consistently held sway in the constituency of Misrikh since 2014.

In the 2014 election, BJPs Anju Bala won the election by receiving 412575 votes while Ashok Kumar Rawat on BSP ticket garnered 325212 votes. However, in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the constituency witnessed a fierce competition between BSPs Dr Neelu Satyarthi and Ashok Kumar Rawat on BJP ticket. Ashok Kumar Rawat won the seat by securing 534429 votes and Dr Neelu Satyarthi received 433757 votes.

(This article is part of a Timeline internship project)