Rampur Assembly Seats: Bypoll Shifts and 2022 Results Explained
With Uttar Pradesh gearing up for the 2027 assembly polls, the five constituencies of Rampur district are drawing renewed interest. Past results and bypoll outcomes reveal how political control has changed hands in recent years.
The five seats are Rampur (Sadar), Swar, Chamraua, Bilaspur and Milak. Rampur (Sadar) remains the most closely watched among them.
Rampur (Sadar) has long been dominated by Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, who has been elected here 10 times. He won the 2022 contest with about 59.72 percent of the vote on a Samajwadi Party ticket. Later, his assembly seat was declared vacant after a legal conviction, leading to a bypoll. BJP's Akash Saxena (Honey) won that bypoll and now serves as the MLA from the seat.
As a Muslim-majority constituency, where more than half of voters are Muslim, Rampur (Sadar) also has significant Vaishya, Punjabi, Brahmin, Dalit and OBC populations that play a decisive role at the polls.
In 2022, Azam Khan defeated BJP's Akash Saxena by 55,141 votes. Khan secured 131,225 votes and Saxena 76,084. BSP's Sadaqat Husain came third with 4,940 votes.
In the bypoll, Saxena beat Samajwadi Party's Md. Asim Raja by 34,136 votes, collecting 81,432 votes against Raja's 47,296. The bypoll marked a shift of the seat from the Samajwadi Party to the BJP.
Swar is another high-profile seat, with Muslim voters accounting for over 60 percent of the population. Saini (OBC) voters constitute the second-largest group, and Dalit, Sikh, Lodh, Jat and Kshatriya voters also shape electoral outcomes.
The seat was a bastion of the Azam Khan family, with his son Mohammad Abdullah Azam winning in 2017 and 2022. After Abdullah Azam's conviction and disqualification, a bypoll was held in 2023 and the seat moved to the NDA. Shafiq Ahmad Ansari of Apna Dal (Sonelal) defeated Samajwadi Party's Anuradha Chauhan by 8,724 votes, receiving 68,630 votes to her 59,906. Peace Party's Nazia Siddiqui finished third with 4,688 votes.
Chamraua has remained with the Samajwadi Party, which won it in 2017 and 2022. In 2022, Naseer Ahmad Khan defeated BJP's Mohan Kumar Lodhi by 34,290 votes, with 100,976 votes against Lodhi's 66,686. Congress's Ali Yusuf Ali got 18,213 votes to finish third.
In Bilaspur, the BJP won a tightly contested 2022 election. Baldev Singh Aulakh defeated Samajwadi Party's Amarjeet Singh by just 307 votes, with 101,998 votes to Singh's 101,691. BSP's Ram Avtar Kashyap finished third with 18,870 votes.
Bilaspur has a mixed electorate with no dominant caste. Muslims make up roughly 30 to 31 percent of voters, Sikhs about 15 to 20 percent, and the rest include Scheduled Castes, Maurya, Saini, Kashyap, Yadav and upper-caste communities such as Brahmins, Thakurs and Baniyas.
Milak (Reserved) is held by the BJP. In 2022, Rajbala Singh of the BJP defeated Samajwadi Party's Vijay Singh by 5,912 votes, polling 97,948 to Singh's 92,036. BSP's Surendra Singh Sagar placed third with 31,492 votes.
In this reserved seat, Dalit voters, especially Jatavs, are decisive. The constituency also has a sizeable Muslim population, and backward communities such as Saini (OBC) are in a strong position. Kshatriya and Brahmin voters also make up a significant share and help determine the direction of the contest.