One of the four seats that the CPI(M) won during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is Rajasthan’s Sikar constituency where the party’s four-time MLA Amra Ram contested. Among the other three seats that the left party bagged includes one from Kerala and two from Tamil Nadu.

An India bloc member, Amra Ram defeated the two-time BJP MP Sumedhanand Saraswati by 72,896 votes. The firebrand farmers’ leader has been contesting Lok Sabha elections since 1996 without tasting the victory.

Born into a farming Jat family, the former MLA  pursued his education in his home state; earned a Masters and worked as a teacher at a government school for a few years. Amra Ram later left his job to devote his whole life to social activism. During his term as a lawmaker in the state assembly, he was known for bringing farmer’s voices to the front.

Amra Ram’s association with the left politics started at the time of his studies. He joined the CPM’s student wing, the Student Federation of India (SFI), and has served as its Rajasthan chief.

Amra Ram’s electoral history started with failure when he first contested in the 1985 assembly elections on a CPM ticket. He was pushed to a distant third with only 10281 votes in his credit. Amra Ram’s relentless social activism then took him to the state assembly in 1993 when he contested from the Dhod constituency, and he retained the seat till 2003.

Later in 2008, the firebrand farmer leader was elected again to the state assembly from Danta Ramgarh constituency. Amra Ram has many things in his credit and has brought several projects for the farmers during his term as an MLA. The 2017 Sikar Kisan Movement under Amra Ram’s leadership was one of the known movements, he orchestrated for farm loan waiver and minimum support price.

However, during the 2024 general election, the 72-year-old farmer leader was pitted against the BJP sitting MP as an INDIA bloc candidate from Sikar, paving his foray into the Lok Sabha. Notably, the BJP’s emergence had pushed the left ideologies to the back since 2014, and the farmers agitations in Sikar under the banner of f Akhil Bhartiya Kishan Sabha (AIKS), the farmers wing of the CMP, helped revive its ideologies among the public.

It was also reported that the Agnipath scheme introduced by the central government also angered the jat community in the constituency. The farmer leader had banked on the anti-incumbency sentiments, vowing to protect the constituency and democratic institutions. The left leader had also promised his support for the farmers’ demand such as the minimum support price, among others.

Political analysts had assumed that the support of the Jat community would go to the BJP candidate. But, there were many who claimed that along with jat votes, the CMP candidate would receive the direct Congress vote, taking his tally to the victory margin. The alliance with the Congress party coupled with the peoples’ anti-incumbency is believed to be the central force that increased Amra Ram’s vote share over the rival BJP candidate.