Chunav Flashback: In the 1985 Bijnor bypoll, Meira Kumar fought Ram Vilas Paswan, Mayawati
Chunav Flashback: The Bijnor Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh saw an intriguing by-election struggle in 1985 between Meira Kumar of the Congress, Ram Vilas Paswan of the Janata Dal, and Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Congress politician Meira Kumar challenged two prominent dalit leaders, Ram Vilas Paswan and Mayawati, in her maiden electoral political contest.
Meira Kumar, who also comes from a dalit family, rose to the occasion and successfully defended her candidacy against rivals from the Scheduled Caste (SC).
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In 1985, Meira Kumar won the Congress’ candidacy for the Lok Sabha in the Uttar Pradesh bypoll for the Bijnor seat.
She beat Mayawati and Ram Vilas Paswan, two seasoned dalit leaders, despite being a newbie to political politics.
With 1,28,086 votes, Meira Kumar was the clear winner, followed by Ram Vilas Paswan with 1,22,747, and Mayawati in third place with 61,504 votes.
Ram Vilas Paswan was beaten by the Congress dalit leader with a vote count of 5,339 to 1.
In 1986, Kumar was appointed as a member of the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of External Affairs subsequent to her election to the Lok Sabha.
In 1984, the Congress achieved a historic win in Uttar Pradesh, which at the time had 85 parliamentary seats, when it won 83 seats and the Lok Dal won two.
Meira Kumar is the daughter of Jagjivan Ram, a well-known leader of the Schedule Caste and former deputy prime minister.
The main race in Bijnor in 2024 is between Chaudhary Vijendra Singh of the BSP, Chandan Chauhan of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), and Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Deepak Saini. The first round of voting in Bijnor ended on April 19 already.
