Chunav Flashback: In 1985, the Bijnor Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh witnessed an fascinating bypoll contest between Congress’ Meira Kumar, Janata Dal’s Ram Vilas Paswan and Bahujan Samaj Celebration’s (BSP) Mayawati. It was for the very first time when Congress chief Meira Kumar entered into the electoral politics and confronted two large dalit leaders, Ram Vilas Paswan and Mayawati.
Hailing from a dalit household too, Meira Kumar took on the problem and proved her candidature towards her SC opponents.
Meira Kumar acquired Congress’ nomination for the Lok Sabha from the Bijnor constituency bypoll in Uttar Pradesh in 1985.
As a newcomer within the electoral politics, she defeated two veteran dalit leaders together with Ram Vilas Paswan and Mayawati.
Meira Kumar acquired a complete of 1,28,086 votes, Ram Vilas Paswan secured 1,22,747 whereas Mayawati was a distant third with 61,504 votes.
The Congress dalit chief defeated Ram Vilas Paswan by a margin of 5,339 votes.
Following her election to the Lok Sabha, Kumar was appointed as member of the Ministry of Exterior Affairs’ Consultative Committee in 1986.
In 1984, Uttar Pradesh which had 85 parliamentary seats at that occasions, the Congress recorded a historic victory and gained 83 seats whereas two seats have been gained by Lok Dal.
Meira Kumar is the daughter of former deputy Prime Minister and distinguished Schedule Caste chief Jagjivan Ram.
In 2024, the important thing contest in Bijnor is between Samajwadi Celebration’s (SP) Deepak Saini, Rashtriya Lok Dal’s (RLD) Chandan Chauhan and BSP’s Chaudhary Vijendra Singh. Polling in Bijnor has already concluded within the first section on April 19.
ALSO READ | Chunav flashback: Congress paid a heavy worth for Sanjay Gandhi’s sterilisation initiative in 1977 elections
