New Delhi: Congress candidate and son of Panna Lal Punia, Tanuj Punia won back the Lok Sabha seat of Barabanki from BJP. Barabanki is one of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh.
The seat is reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates. Dalit leader of Congress, P.L. Punia, represented the Barabanki Lok Sabha Constituency from 2009 to 2014 but lost the Lok Sabha seat in 2014 to BJP candidate Priyanka Singh Rawat.
In the 2019 parliamentary elections, Tanuj Punia lost to BJP candidate Upendra Singh Rawat. However, this time the wheel of fortune has turned, and Punia won by 7,19,927 votes against Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Rajrani Rawat, with a margin of 2,15,704 votes. He also defeated Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Shiv Kumar Doharey by a margin of 6,80,750 votes.
Also Read: Smriti Irani loses Amethi to Congress’s Kishori Lal Sharma
In an exclusive conversation with Rohan Dua, Executive Editor of The New Indian, Tanuj Punia criticized the BJP on the Ram Temple issue, stating, “How will one go to the Ram Temple if their stomach is empty?”
The Barabanki Lok Sabha constituency held its polling on May 20 during the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. The voter turnout was reported at 67.20%.
Not only the Barabanki constituency, but in a surprising turn of events, 37 Lok Sabha seats, including Faizabad, Amethi, and Sultanpur of Uttar Pradesh, witnessed a flip. Neither Ram Mandir nor the famous faces of BJP candidates worked in these constituencies.
Samajwadi Party candidate Awadhesh Prasad won the Faizabad seat against Lallu Singh with a margin of 54,567, which includes Ayodhya as well. In Amethi, Kishori Lal Sharma won the seat against Smriti Irani with a margin of 1,67,196 And from Sultanpur, Rambhual Nishad of the Samajwadi Party won against BJP candidate Maneka Sanjay Gandhi with a margin of 4,31,74.