New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and sitting MP Lallu Singh is trailing from the Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency, which includes Ayodhya city, the home of the newly-built Ram Mandir.
Samajwadi Party’s Awadhesh Prasad was leading by 2,131 votes with a total vote of 1.68 lakh votes, till figures last came in.
Ayodhya and Faizabad cities are in this constituency, which comprises five assembly segments, including Dariyabad, Radauli, Milkipur, Bikapur, and Ayodhya.
The BJP had reposed faith in Singh, seeking a third term from the constituency, as Ram Mandir was one of its central poll planks.
The consecration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya was one of the key achievements of the BJP with the party going door-to-door, telling people about its efforts in ensuring the temple’s construction after many years.
Despite Ram Mandir, sources said, an anti-incumbency feeling towards the sitting MP was a major factor as voters kept local issues above national considerations. In 2019, Lallu Singh had won by a margin of 65,000 votes over Samajwadi Party’s Anant Sen.
Reel life ‘Ram’ and BJP candidate from Meerut, Arun Govil, also faces a tough neck-and-neck fight, leading by a slim margin of 794 votes against his nearest rival Sunita Verma of the Samajwadi Party.
In Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party was leading in 36 out of the state’s 80 seats, according to latest trends. Its ally Congress was leading in nine.
The BJP, which is in power in the state assembly, was winning in 32 seats with ally RLD in two. In 2019, the BJP had registered a spectacular performance winning 62 of the 80 seats in the state. In 2014, the national party had secured 72 seats, registering one of its biggest tallies.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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