By Nivedita Singh
New Delhi, May 17 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh is known for its 'Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb' -- a fusion of Hindu and Muslim culture -- and its Aligarh and Rampur Lok Sabha constituencies have shown this since the first Lok Sabha.
Of the total 16 general elections since independence, Rampur, an erstwhile princely state ruled by a Nawab, has elected three Hindu MPs -- Rajendra Kumar Sharma, Jaya Prada and Nepal Singh -- while Aligarh, the seat of the Aligarh Muslim University, has elected only one Muslim since 1952.
Congress stalwart and free India's first Education Minister Abul Kalam Azad was elected from Rampur in the first Lok Sabha election, followed by S. Ahmad Mehdi, also from the Congress, in the second and third general elections.
The Congress continued its hold over the constituency in the next two Lok Sabha polls too as Zulfiquar Ali Khan, the brother of the titular Nawab Murtaza Ali Khan and a former Indian Army officer, was elected in 1967 and 1971.
However, in 1977, Rajendra Kumar Sharma from the Bharatiya Lok Dal, was elected from the seat as the Congress lost ground all across north India due to the Emergency.
In 1980, Zulfiquar Ali Khan, who was popularly known as "Mickey Mian", again won the seat and he was re-elected in 1984 - when he had become the titular Nawab following the death of his brother in 1982, and 1989.
In 1991, Rajendra Kumar Sharma, this time in the Bharatiya Janata Party, bagged the seat.
Following the Nawab's death in a road accident in 1992, the Congress fielded his widow, Begum Noor Bano, in 1996. Though defeated in the 1998 elections to the BJP's Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in 1998, she won in 1999.
In 2004, Samajwadi Party's Jaya Prada was elected. She was re-elected in 2009.
In 2014, Nepal Singh from the BJP bagged the seat, while Nawab Zulfiquar Ali Khan's son Nawab Kazim Ali Khan, who contested on a Congress ticket, came third.
In the ongoing polls, Jaya Prada, this time from the BJP, is contesting against Azam Khan from the Samajwadi Party and Sanjay Kapoor from the Congress.
From Aligarh, Jamal Khwaja, of the Congress, was the only Muslim member elected in 1957. Barring him, the seat always elected a Hindu.
The Congress won the first two Lok Sabha elections from Aligarh. In 1962, Aligarh voted for Budha Priya Maurya of the Republican Party of India.
Shiv Kumar Shastri from the Bharatiya Kranti Dal won the seat in 1967 and 1971. Janata Party's Nawab Singh Chauhan and Indra Kumari won in 1977 and 1980, respectively.
The Congress was re-elected in 1984 with Usha Rani Tomar winning but lost the seat in 1989 to Janata Dal's Satya Pal Malik - now the Jammu and Kashmir Governor.
The BJP's Sheela Gautam won the seat in 1991 first and was re-elected in 1996, 1998 and 1999.
In 2004, Bijendra Singh from Congress won and in 2009, Raj Kumari Chauhan from the Bahujan Samaj Party bagged the seat. In 2014, Satish Kumar Gautam of the BJP was elected.
In 2019, sitting MP Gautam has been renamed against BSP's Ajit Baliyan and Congress' Bijendra Singh.
Interestingly, both the seats have voted for the same party which formed the government at the Centre 10 times, except in 1991 and 2009.
While Aligarh voted on April 18, the Rampur Lok Sabha seat went to polls on April 23.
(Nivedita Singh can be contacted at nivedita.singh@ians.in)
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