2024 LS polls: SP deals a blow to Union MoS Teni in Lakhimpur Kheri
Union minister Ajay Kumar Mishra Teni loses Lakhimpur Lok Sabha seat to SP candidate Utkarsh Verma Madhur by 33,323 votes amid controversy over 2021 violence.
Union minister of state for home Ajay Kumar Mishra Teni, who was hoping for a hat-trick of victory from the Lakhimpur Lok Sabha seat this time, faced defeat at the hands of the Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Utkarsh Verma Madhur.
The SP candidate won the seat by 33,323 votes. Madhur polled 5,55,277 votes while Teni, who won the seat in 2014 and 2019, secured 5,21,954 votes. The SP last won this seat in 2004.
It was the first Lok Sabha polls since the infamous October 3, 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence when a vehicle allegedly belonging to Teni mowed down four farmers and a journalist while they had gathered to protest against the now-repealed farm laws. Three others were lynched in the subsequent violence.
Teni’s son Ashish Mishra is the main accused in the case. The BJP backed the junior home minister despite resentment against the minister over the case. Ashish Mishra is currently out on bail. The SP candidate maintained a lead over Teni since the first round though once the margin shrunk to just about 800 votes.
Following the Kheri incident, the Opposition and some farmers’ bodies demanded Teni’s removal as the convoy was allegedly associated with him. However, there was no electoral fallout of the October 2021 incident on the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls and 2023 civic elections. In the 2022 UP assembly polls, the BJP won all five assembly segments in the Kheri parliamentary constituency.
The opposition INDIA bloc attempted to draw political mileage against the ruling BJP by refreshing memories of the Kheri violence in the constituency that went to polls in the fourth phase on May 13. On the other hand, the BJP stood firm with Teni. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in his Kheri rally in May, called upon the electorate to: “Give a reply to ‘SUV’ through your votes, oust Ajay Mishra Teni”.
Union home minister Amit Shah, who backed his deputy while campaigning for him, said: “Wherever I go (for campaigning), in every place, people demand that their MP should be made a minister. But to you, the people of Kheri, we have already given a minister. Ensure the victory of Ajay Mishra and I assure you that I will make him a big man.”
