Gorakhpur Lok Sabha Election Result 2019: BJP’s gamble on star power in Yogi’s home constituency pays off

The BJP candidate Ravi Kishan easily wins the constituency, securing more than 60% of the votes. His closest rival, Rambual Nishad from the SP, won 35% of the votes.

Fielding a Bhojpuri actor, Ravi Kishan who is largely an outsider, was in line with the BJP’s strategy of fielding celebrities and big name candidates in crucial constituencies, like Gautam Gambhir in East Delhi for example.

Kishan, who is often referred to as the “‘Amitabh Bachchan of the East” had rebuked the outsider tag, claiming that he would live in Gorakhpur after elections.

Interestingly, Kishan stood for elections in 2014 from the Jaunpur constituency in UP - for the Congress - and lost. He formally joined the BJP in February 2017.

This time around, with the electoral favourite on his side, Kishan seemed the man to beat. Ravi Kishan’s main job, on paper, was to redeem the BJP for its shock loss in last year’s bypolls in Gorakhpur.

The seat has, incidentally, been held by the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from 1998 to 2017, having won it five times in a row. The loss represented the BJP’s first loss of the seat in 27 years.

In fact, Kishan was largely subsumed by Adityanath when it came to campaigning in the constituency. This was more a referendum on the rule of Adityanath, who reportedly handled the main address in several rallies while Kishan looked on.

Kishan had a formidable competitor for the Lok Sabha Seat in the form of Ram Bhuwal Nishad, a candidate from the SP-BSP alliance that had been the state’s fisheries minister during Mayawati’s rule from 2007 to 2012.


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