Hamirpur, 02 April (HS): In 62 years, no candidate has been able to score a hat-trick on the Hamirpur-Mahoba Lok Sabha seat of Uttar Pradesh. Lok Sabha elections were held 14 times in six decades, but only two candidates from political parties could become MP from this seat for two consecutive terms. Incumbent BJP MP Pushpendra Singh Chandel won for two consecutive terms. Now he is contesting elections for the third time to score a hat-trick. This time, the candidates of INDIA, the alliance of opposition parties, are struggling to contest in their strong bastion.
Decisive votes are considered to play a major role in the victory of any candidate on this Lok Sabha seat consisting of five assembly constituencies like Hamirpur Sadar, Rath, Mahoba, Charkhari and Tindwari. Rath, Charkhari area of the parliamentary constituency has the highest number of Lodhi voters which can spoil the electoral mathematics of any candidate. This seat has been in the possession of BSP for the last two and a half decades.
On the card of BSP's social engineering, BSP had demolished the strong stronghold of Congress and BJP. BSP had captured this parliamentary seat twice due to continuous increase in the party's support base and in the game of caste equations, but in the year 2014 elections, due to Modi magic, BJP had ousted the regional parties from the area. BJP's hold on parliamentary seats has remained intact since the last two general elections.
In the 1952 general elections in the country, Congress candidate ML Dwivedi had captured the Hamirpur-Mahoba parliamentary seat. He got 32.7 percent votes. ML Dwivedi became MP again in the 1957 Lok Sabha elections. He had won by a very small margin of votes. He got only 28.6 percent votes whereas RSA candidate Lakshmiram stood second with 28.2 percent votes. ML Dwivedi became MP for the third time in the 1962 general elections. He got 47.9 percent votes. This honourable man of honest and simple nature has been MP from here for three consecutive terms.
In the year 1967, Swami Brahmanand Maharaj of the Lodhi community came to the election field on the ticket of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh Party. He became MP for the first time by getting 54.1 percent votes. Moreover, he joined the Congress in 1971 and contested elections again and then became an MP but was defeated in the 1977 general elections. Swami Brahmanand could not score a hat-trick on the seat here. Similarly, Gangcharan Rajput became MP for the first time in 1989 but lost the election in 1991. Gangacharan bloomed the lotus of the BJP in 1996. While he became MP again in the 1998 elections, he stood third in 1999.
Hamirpur-Mahoba's current MP Pushpendra Singh Chandel has won with bumper votes twice in a row. He became MP for the first time in the 2014 elections and reached the Lok Sabha after getting the mandate again in 2019. He is contesting elections again to retain the seat here for the third time. The opposition is united to surround them. Pushpendra Singh is a resident of Mahoba, while SP has made Ajendra Singh Rajput of Mahoba its candidate from INDIA alliance. Both of them are breaking into each other's stronghold.
Hindusthan Samachar/ Indrani/Manoj