Pilibhit Lok Sabha Election Results 2024: Jitin Prasada set to retain this BJP bastion

Pilibhit Lok Sabha Election results 2024: BJP's Jitin Prasada is to retain Pilibhit, a saffron party bastion. His lead over Samajwadi Party's Bhagwat Saran Gangwar. The SP had come second in this seat in 2019 when Varun Gandhi bagged the seat for the BJP. This time, Prasada, a cabinet minister in the Yogi government in Uttar Pradesh, replaced Varun Gandhi from the seat.  

In 2019, Varun Gandhi won from Pilibhit by getting nearly 60% of the votes -  a jump of 7.32% from what his mother Maneka Gandhi secured in 2014. The Pilibhit constituency has been held by Maneka Gandhi or her son Varun since 1996.

Maneka Gandhi first won the seat in 1989 on a Janata Dal ticket but lost in 1991. She regained it in 1996. She won again in 1998 and 1999 as an Independent candidate, and later as a BJP candidate in 2004 and 2014. Varun Gandhi won the Pilibhit seat as a BJP candidate in 2009 and 2019.

Pilibhit's electorate is mainly rural, with 82% rural voters and 18% urban voters. Scheduled Castes make up 16% of the population, while Scheduled Tribes are just 0.1%. Religiously, Hindus comprise 65% of the population, Muslims 25%, and other religious groups 10%.

Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is also in the fray. She has fielded Anis Ahmad Khan. However, the main contest is between the Samajwadi Party and BJP. 

The Pilibhit constituency includes five assembly seats: Baheri, Pilibhit, Barkhera, Puranpur (SC), and Bisalpur. Four of these seats are held by the BJP. Pilibhit went to polls on April 19.