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Fatehpur Sikri, the historic city that once served as the capital of the Mughal Empire under Emperor Akbar, is now the site of a unique political showdown. This Lok Sabha constituency, carved out of the Agra district after the 2008 delimitation, is witnessing a rare quadrangular battle in the upcoming elections.
The incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP, Rajkumar Chahar, is facing a tough challenge from three formidable opponents – the Congress party’s Ramnath Sikarwar, popularly known as ‘Fauji Baba’, the Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Brahmin candidate Ram Niwas Sharma, and independent candidate Rameshwar Choudhary, the son of the current BJP MLA.
The caste dynamics in Fatehpur Sikri add an extra layer of complexity to the electoral contest. The Thakur community, with a population of 3.5 lahks, forms the largest voting bloc, followed by the Brahmins at 3 lakh and the Jats at 1.75 lahks. The BJP is banking on its traditional Thakur support, but the Congress and BSP candidates, representing the Kshatriya and Brahmin communities respectively, pose a significant challenge in splitting the votes.
To counter this, the BJP has deployed heavyweight leaders like Rajnath Singh and Yogi Adityanath to campaign for Chahar, while the Congress has enlisted the support of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for its candidate Sikarwar.
With the complex caste dynamics, internal dissent within the BJP, and the anti-incumbency sentiment, the electoral battle in Fatehpur Sikri is poised to be a closely contested affair, one that could reshape the political landscape of this historically significant region.