Jhansi Lok Sabha Seat Analysis

Introduction 

Jhansi Lok Sabha is one of the seats of Uttar Pradesh, a state having the largest number of Lok Sabha seats (80). Jhansi Lok Sabha seat is surrounded by Madhya Pradesh from three sides and belongs to a region called Bundhelkhand. Jhansi Lok Sabha seat consists of two districts geographically: Jhansi and Lalitpur. It is a general category seat that represents the people of Bundelkhand in Lok Sabha since the first general election of independent India (1952). This seat was predominantly won by INC with some exceptions like Shri Rajendra Agnihotri (General- Brahmin) (in office from 1989 to 1998) from BJP. Dr. Sushila Nayyar, a disciple of Shri Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi won the Lok Sabha elections from the Jhansi seat four times. With the advent of the Modi Era in 2014, BJP won this seat in 2014 as well as the 2019 general election. In 2014, Sadhvi Uma Bharati, ex-Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh won the election by defeating former MP Shri Pardeep Jain Aditya of INC by a margin of 14.4 %. In 2019, there was a bigger victory for the BJP and this seat was won by Shri Anurag Sharma of BJP with a margin of 26.8%.

2014 Election Analysis 

Sadhvi Uma Bharati from BJP (OBC- Lodhi Rajput), ex CM of MP emerged victorious in Lok Sabha Elections 2014. She defeated the then sitting MP of INC, Shri Pardeep Jain Aditya ( General – Jain). The runner up candidate was Dr. Chandra Pal Singh Yadav from Samajwadi Party (OBC- Yadav) who was defeated by Uma Bharti with a margin of  14.4%. Congress’s vote share declined drastically from 2009 elections to 2014 elections (22.9% decline in vote share). In 2009, INC was the winner whereas in 2014, INC candidate Shri Pardeep Jain ‘Aditya’ was not able to secure his deposit in the election. The reason for this high anti-incumbency was the dissatisfaction among masses against the UPA government. The Modi Wave was also an important factor for this massive victory of BJP in one of the important seat of Uttar Pradesh. 

2019 Election Analysis 

Shri Anurag Sharma (General- Brahmin), managing director of the renowned Ayurvedic Indian Brand Shree Baidyanath Ayurved Bhawan Pvt. Ltd. , contested election on the BJP ticket for the first time and won with a margin of 26.8 %.  BSP and SP contested election under an alliance named MahagathBandhan and Shri Shyam Sundar Singh from SP (OBC- Yadav) was the runner up candidate securing 32.10% votes. It was a bipolar election. INC candidate Shri Shiv Sharan (OBC-Kushwaha) secured only 6.20% vote, though Kushwaha community which constitutes 8.5% of Jhansi’s population. Many independent candidates such as Shri Jagat Vikram Singh (OBC- Lodhi Rajput) tried to consolidate votes of Lodhi community and Shri Dilshad Ahmed Siddiqui (OBC- Muslim Kayastha) tried to consolidate muslim votes as they are 5.55% in number. These independent candidates’ vote share was so meager (0.4% and 0.2%) that they were not able to affect the electoral  results of 2019 Lok Sabha elections of Jhansi Lok Sabha seat. Projects like Bundelkhand Corridor, loan waivers to farmers due to drought and defense corridor worked in favor of BJP. Strict adherence to Rule of Law by the BJP state government led by Yogi Adityanath caught people’s eye and saw this as the end of “Gunda Raj” in Uttar Pradesh. Moreover, people of Jhansi Lok Sabha seat had immense trust in the leadership of PM Shri Narendra Modi and ‘Modi Magic’ worked. 

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