These Dalit MPs are coming to Parliament after winning the Lok Sabha elections, know which party they belong to
There is at least one Dalit MP who has been elected from a general seat like Faizabad.
Saket Anand
The Bahujan Samaj Party, formed to hand over the key to power to the Dalits, was reduced to zero in the Lok Sabha elections 2024. But Dalit MPs elected from other parties are being discussed a lot. Some Dalit MPs have been elected not only from reserved seats, but also from general seats like Faizabad. At the same time, there are some Dalit MPs whose age is only 25-26 years.
Chandrashekhar Azad
Chandrashekhar Azad, who came into the limelight a few years ago by forming ‘Bheem Army’, has now become an MP. Chandrashekhar has defeated BJP candidate Om Kumar from Nagina seat of Uttar Pradesh by more than one and a half lakh votes. Chandrashekhar is the national president of Azad Samaj Party (Kanshiram). He has won the election from his own party. Here Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party had also fielded their candidates against Chandrashekhar. Chandrashekhar said that he has entered the election to provide security to the Bahujans.
Chandrashekhar is a lawyer by profession. He studied law from Uttarakhand. In October 2015, he formed ‘Bheem Army’. Its objective was to promote education in the Dalit community. In September 2016, Chandrashekhar and his organization came into the limelight during a protest against the beating of Dalit students in a college in Saharanpur. After this, Chandrashekhar became increasingly popular among Dalits. On 15 March 2020, on Kanshiram’s birthday, he announced the formation of his own party. In the 2022 assembly elections, Chandrashekhar also contested against Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur urban seat. But lost. This time he has won the election.
Sanjana Jatav
Sanjana Jatav, who became MP from Bharatpur, Rajasthan, is only 26 years old. She was the youngest candidate in Rajasthan. Sanjana defeated BJP candidate Ramswaroop Koli by 51,983 votes. After the victory, a video of her dancing to a song with Congress workers is going viral. In the recent past, Sanjana has emerged as a popular face within the party. Last year, Sanjana contested the assembly elections from Kathumar seat in Alwar district on a Congress ticket, but lost by 409 votes.
Sanjana was fielded after four-time MLA from Kathumar Babulal Bairwa’s ticket was cut. According to media reports, Sanjana is considered close to Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi. She was associated with her ‘Larki Hun, Lad Sakti Hun’ campaign. Before becoming an MLA, she also contested the Alwar Zila Parishad elections, where she was elected from Ward-29. She graduated from Maharaja Surajmal Brij University in 2019. Her husband Captain Singh is a police constable in Rajasthan.
Shambhavi Chaudhary
Shambhavi Chaudhary is one of the youngest MPs elected this time. She is just 25 years old. Samastipur Lok Sabha seat of Bihar is reserved for Scheduled Caste. Shambhavi belongs to Pasi caste. Her father Ashok Chaudhary is a minister in Bihar government and is considered close to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Shambhavi defeated Sunny Hazari, son of Bihar government’s Information and Public Relations Minister Maheshwar Hazari, in the election. She won by 1 lakh 87 thousand votes. Sunny Hazari is associated with Congress.
After schooling from Notre Dame Academy of Patna, Shambhavi did her graduation from Lady Shri Ram College of Delhi University. Then, she got a master’s degree from Delhi School of Economics. She is married to Sayan Kunal, son of Bihar’s famous IPS Kishore Kunal. Sayan Kunal belongs to Bhumihar caste. There was a discussion that Sayan himself wanted to contest the election, but circumstances were such that Shambhavi had to enter the electoral fray.
Awadhesh Prasad
Awadhesh Prasad of Samajwadi Party won from Faizabad Lok Sabha seat of Uttar Pradesh by 54,567 votes. He defeated two-time BJP MP Lallu Singh from this seat. He is also being discussed because after the construction of Ram temple here, BJP’s victory was considered easy. Awadhesh Prasad is one of the founding members of SP. He has been an MLA 9 times. In the last assembly elections, he was elected MLA from Milkipur. 78-year-old Awadhesh Prasad is the famous Dalit face of SP in Ayodhya.
Despite Faizabad being a general Lok Sabha seat, Akhilesh Yadav made Awadhesh Prasad the candidate as an experiment. After fielding the Dalit face of SP from Faizabad, a slogan was given, ‘Neither Mathura nor Kashi in Ayodhya, only Awadhesh Pasi.’ It is believed that not only Dalit castes but also OBC castes like Kurmi got united behind the Dalit candidate.
Kumari Shailaja
Kumari Shailaja has been a Union Minister in the Manmohan Singh government. She is counted as a prominent Dalit leader in the Congress. Shailaja has once again been elected MP from Sirsa Lok Sabha seat of Haryana. She has defeated BJP’s Ashok Tanwar by 2 lakh 68 thousand votes. In the last Lok Sabha elections, she lost from Ambala. Shailaja’s father Chaudhary Dalveer Singh was the President of Haryana Congress.
Shailaja, who started politics with Mahila Congress in 1990, has been a Union Minister many times. She reached the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1991 from Sirsa. Then she was made the Union Minister of State for Education in the Narasimha Rao government. She is counted among the close ones of the Gandhi family. Currently, she is also a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC). She has been a Rajya Sabha MP from Haryana from 2014 to 2020. Before the last Haryana assembly elections, she was also made the state Congress president. She was in this position till April 2022.
Charanjit Singh Channi
Charanjit Singh Channi has been the Chief Minister of Punjab. He is the first Dalit leader to reach the post of CM in the state. This time the Congress made him a candidate from Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat. Channi defeated BJP’s Sushil Kumar Rinku by 1 lakh 75 thousand 993 votes. This is considered a big victory for Charanjit Singh Channi. Because in the 2022 assembly elections, he lost the election from two places. The Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat was dominated by the Congress from 1999 to 2019. However, in the last election, the Aam Aadmi Party won from here.
Charanjit Singh Channi is the prominent Dalit-Sikh face of Punjab Congress. He has been an MLA from Chamkaur Sahib thrice. He won his first election as MLA in the year 2007. In the year 2015-16, he was also the Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Legislative Assembly. In the government led by Captain Amarinder Singh, he was entrusted with the charge of Technical Education and Industrial Training Department. But when there was a rebellion against Amarinder Singh in August 2021, Channi was also among those who led it. Along with doing MBA, Channi has also done LLB and PhD from Punjab University.
Dr. Virendra Kumar
BJP leader Dr. Virendra Kumar has become a Lok Sabha MP for the eighth consecutive time. This is his fourth consecutive victory from Tikamgarh Lok Sabha seat of Madhya Pradesh. He defeated Pankaj Ahirwar of Congress by 4 lakh 3 thousand votes. Earlier, Virendra Kumar Khatik has handled the responsibility of different departments in the Modi government. Currently he was the Union Minister of Social Justice. In the first term of the Modi government, he was also the Minister of State in the Minority Welfare and Women and Child Development Department.
Virendra Kumar has done PhD from Dr. Harisingh Gour University of Sagar. For the first time in 1996, he reached the Lok Sabha from Sagar itself. He remained an MP from there continuously till 2004. After that he has been winning from Tikamgarh.
BJP gets a setback on reserved seats
In the Lok Sabha, 84 seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) and 47 seats for Scheduled Tribes (ST). That is, candidates from the same community can contest elections on these 131 seats. Seats were reserved to increase representation in Parliament from these communities. Similarly, seats are also reserved for these communities in the Legislative Assemblies.
In this election, the Bharatiya Janata Party has also suffered a major setback on reserved seats. In the 2019 elections, the BJP had won 46 SC reserved seats. But this time this figure was reduced to 30. At the same time, the number of Congress MPs on seats reserved for Scheduled Castes increased from 6 to 19. Similarly, the BJP’s figure on seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes decreased from 31 to 26. And Congress won 12 seats this time as compared to 4 seats won in the last election.
Courtesy: Hindi News