BJP dropped sitting MP Priyanka Singh Rawat and fielded Upendra Singh against Congress' Tanuj Punia and SP's Ram Sagar Rawat. Priyanka Singh Rawat had won the 2014 election by defeating Congress leader PL Punia by 2.1 lakh votes.
The seat is reserved for candidates belonging to scheduled castes. The constituency went to polls in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections on May 6.
Election Result 2019: Upendra Singh Rawat (BJP) - 535917 (46.39%), Tanuj Punia (Congress) - 159611 (13.82%), Ram Sagar Rawat (SP)- 425777 (36.85%)
Constituency profile
In 2009, PL Punia won the seat to become first Congress candidate to win the seat since 1984. Before him, Kamla Prasad Rawat of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a former Congress leader, won from here in 2004. Ram Sagar Rawat, a veteran socialist leader, has represented the seat four times in the Lok Sabha - once on a Janata Dal ticket and thrice on Samajwadi Party.
This time, Punia fielded his son Tanuj from Barabanki.
Tanuj Punia, making his political debut, sought votes in the name of his father who is now one of the closest aides of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.
Barabanki Lok Sabha constituency comprises five assembly segments: Kursi, Ramnagar, Barabanki, Zaidpur (SC) and Haidergarh (SC).
Lok Sabha Elections 2019: State Profile
In the last parliamentary elections in 2014, the BJP had won 71 seats in the state, securing 42.63 per cent of the votes. BJP ally Apna Dal bagged two more. The Samajwadi Party had won five seats with a vote share of 22.35 per cent. The BSP did not win any seat but secured 19.77 per cent votes. The Congress registered wins on two UP seats in 2014, bagging 7.53 per cent of the votes.
UP is facing a triangular battle between the BJP, the Congress and BSP-SP-RLD alliance. Under the alliance's seat-sharing formula, the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is contesting on 38 Lok Sabha seats of the total 80 seats, Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party on 37 seats and the Chaudhary Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) on three seats. The alliance has left two for Congress' Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli) and Rahul Gandhi (Amethi).
