Who is Rampur by-poll winner Ghanshyam Lodhi, who defeated Azam Khan in his stronghold?

New Delhi: Bhartiya Janta Party’s candidate Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi won the Rampur seat in the recently concluded by-polls to become a Member of Parliament (MP). Lodhi defeated Samajwadi Party’s Azam Khan to win the seat. He joined BJP this year only, earlier he was part of the Samajwadi Party and was known to be close friends with Azam Khan.

A look at Ghanshyam Lodhi’s political career

Taking a look at Ghanshyam Lodhi’s political career, he has been elected as the Member of the Legislative Council two times in his political career, while this is the first time when he is elected as an MP. His political career began with BJP as he was in the party till 1998. In 1999 he left BJP and joined Bahujan Samaj Party. Lodhi has been known for changing parties throughout his career.

Lodhi elected as MLC

Lodhi became an MLC for the first time with Samajwadi Party’s support and stood in elections with a ticket from Kalyan Singh’s Rashtriya Kranti Party. He became MLC from the Rampur-Bareilly local jurisdiction in 2004, and later joined Samajwadi Party in 2010. In 2016, he became an MLC with SP’s ticket.

Rampur by-polls

In 2019 there were by-elections for the Vidhan Sabha seat in Rampur, and BJP leaders had a meeting at Lodhi’s residence. Lodhi was not part of the BJP in 2019, though it was in 2022 that he rejoined the party from where he started.

Rampur seat has been an important seat in the Indian political scenario and this was the first time when a by-poll was conducted for its Lok Sabha seat. The by-elections were conducted as Azam Khan resigned from Lok Sabha.

While SP’s Azam Khan has always seen having a strong hold in Rampur, it was Ghanshyam Lodhi who won the by-poll this time. It was shocking as Lodhi gained 367397 votes while Azam Khan got only 325205 votes.