Shahjahanpur Lok Sabha seat in central UP faces triangular contest between BJP, SP, BSP
May 12, 2024
New Delhi [India], May 12 : Shahjahanpur Lok Sabha constituency in central Uttar Pradesh, where parliamentary elections were first held in 1962, faces a triangular contest this time between Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Arun Kumar Sagar, Samajwadi Party's Jyotsna Gond and Bahujan Samaj Party's Daudram Verma.
Shahjahanpur constituency will be a matter of prestige for BJP as three UP ministers - finance minister Suresh Khanna, PWD minister Jitin Prasada and cooperatives minister JPS Rathore - are associated with Shahjahanpur.
Sitting BJP MP Arun Sagar is trying his fate again from Shahjahanpur. He had defeated BSP's Amar Chandra Jauhar in 2019 polls. BJP has been holding the seat since 2014 when Krishna Raj defeated BSP's Umed Singh Kashyap.
Political drama in SP has been a point of discussion in the constituency as SP changed its candidate at the last moment replacing Rajesh Kashyap with Jyotsana Gond.
The Shahjahanpur Lok Sabha constituency comprises six Vidhan Sabha seats: Katra, Jalalabad, Tilhar, Powayan, Shahjahanpur, and Dadraul.
The Congress party won the first three elections but faced defeat in 1977 due to an anti-government wave, with the Janata Dal party emerging victorious.
However, the Congress party reclaimed the seat in 1980 and again in 1984 with Jitendra Prasad as their candidate. During the 1990s, amidst the Ram Mandir wave, the BJP gained prominence in Uttar Pradesh, winning the elections in 1989 and 1991.
However, the Samajwadi Party secured victory in 1996, disrupting the BJP's momentum. The BJP regained the seat in 1998, but in 1999, Jitendra Prasad of the Congress party won.
After his demise in 2001, his son Jitin Prasad won the seat in the 2004 general elections. The Samajwadi Party emerged victorious in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, but the BJP reclaimed the seat in 2014.
In 2019, Arun Kumar Sagar of the BJP emerged victorious in the Shahjahanpur constituency. He secured 688,990 votes, while Amar Chandra Jauhar of the BSP received 420,572 votes. Arun Kumar Sagar won by an impressive margin of 268,418 votes.
The seat will undergo polls on May 13 in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha polls and results will be declared on June 4.
