Lone Hindu candidate defeats 11 Muslims in UP's Kundarki; BJP wins after 30 years

In UP's Kundarki Assembly seat, Ramveer Thakur has created history. The BJP candidate is the lone Hindu from a Muslim-dominated area and defeated 11 other Muslim candidates with around 1.4 lakh votes. With the win in Kundarki, the BJP retakes the seat after a 30-year gap.

A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate in the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Kundarki Assembly seat defeated 11 contenders from the Muslim community. BJP's Ramveer Thakur won with a margin of over 1.4 lakh votes in the Muslim-majority constituency in Uttar Pradesh. With the victory, the BJP has reclaimed the seat after a gap of 30 years.

Kundarki, a Samajwadi Party stronghold, is among the nine UP Assembly seats where bypolls were conducted along with Vidhan Sabha elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

The BJP last won the Kundarki seat in the 1993 UP Vidhan Sabha election, when Chandra Vijay Singh secured victory for the saffron party.

The BJP's Ramveer Thakur in Kundarki defeated his nearest rival of the Samajwadi Party (SP) in a one-sided contest.

The BJP's Ramveer Thakur was up against SP's Mohammad Rizwan, Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram)'s Chand Babu, All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen's Mohammad Varish and Bahujan Samaj Party's Rafatullah.

Kundarki, part of west UP's Sambhal Lok Sabha seat, has a high concentration of the Muslim population, with 60% of its population belonging to the community.

Administration-wise, Kundarki is part of the Moradabad district.

It's worth noting that in the Kundarki bypoll, the BJP fielded the sole Hindu candidate among 11 Muslim contenders, while SP's Mohammad Rizwan, with nearly 40 years of political experience, was the INDIA bloc's pick.

Rizwan first won from Kundarki in 2002 but lost to the BSP's Akbar Husain in 2007. However, he made a strong comeback, securing consecutive wins in 2012 and 2017.

Kundarki has been considered an SP stronghold, but the BJP breaking into the fortress must have come across as a big setback for SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.

ELECTION COMMISSION SUSPENDED 7 POLICE PERSONNEL, AFTER SP RAISED MALPRACTICES

The Samajwadi Party candidate, Mohammad Rizwan, had on the day of voting on Wednesday (voting day) demanded repolling at Kundarki, claiming dubious voting and systematic effort to prevent voters of the minority community from casting their votes.

"Since morning the administration and police acted with bias and intimidated our supporters. I request you to cancel the poll and conduct a repolling on the seat. The SP is boycotting the poll due to this rigging," read Rizwan's letter to the Election Commission.

After multiple reports of poll malpractices and the police trying to keep some voters from polling at Kundarki, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav accused the Uttar Pradesh Police of unlawfully checking voter cards and Aadhaar IDs. He urged the poll body to take action based on complaints on its official social media accounts about some communities being prevented from voting.

"The BJP wants to win these by-elections not by vote but by 'khot'. Fearing a defeat, the BJP is pressuring the administration to indulge in foul play," the SP chief said.

The Election Commission of India, in response, asked the Uttar Pradesh government to ensure fair bypolls in the state and suspended at least seven police personnel, including two sub-inspectors, for violating voter guidelines.

Akhilesh Yadav also shared a video of SP candidate Sumbul Rana from Meerapur in Muzaffarnagar district, accusing police personnel of trying to stop people from voting.

WHY IS BJP LEADING IN KUNDARKI?

The BJP win in the Muslim-dominated seat has naturally raised questions about the factors at play at Kundarki. It could be attributed to the split in Muslim votes that benefited the saffron party's Singh.

Meanwhile, anti-incumbency sentiments, and reports of factionalism among local leaders, could have gone against the SP.

In the 2024 bypoll, Kundarki also recorded the highest voter turnout among the nine UP Assembly seats where the election was conducted.

Additionally, UP CM Yogi Adityanath's aggressive campaign seems to have played a significant role. Ramveer Thakur also made efforts to reach out to Muslim voters, suggests his X feed. The BJP’s Muslim wing and leaders campaigned intensively in Kundarki too. While campaigning in Kundarki, Chief Minister Adityanath said it takes two hands to clap. Harping on the slogan of 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas', he sought votes for the BJP candidate, Ramveer Singh.

Experts believe that minority communities vote in full strength and en bloc for the party of choice.

So, a high voter turnout would be seen favourable for the BJP if there's a Hindu vote consolidation because the minority community would have reached the voting saturation point.

Of UP's nine Assembly seats, BJP leads in six, SP in two, and ayant Chaudhary's Rashtriya Lok Dal(BJP's alliance partner) in one.