Agra, June 6 The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) experienced a dramatic shift in fortunes, losing five of nine Lok Sabha seats in the Ayodhya region, including the unexpected defeat in Faizabad, home to the Ram temple.
However, the party flourished in Lord Krishna's Braj region, encompassing Agra, Mathura, Hathras and Aligarh.
Hema Malini, the actor-turned-politician and ardent Krishna devotee, secured a comfortable win in Mathura with a margin of 2.93 lakh votes. Jayant Choudhary's RLD significantly boosted her support among Jat voters.
Local hopes are high that Hema Malini will be inducted into the ministry, amid discussions on whether her victory was due to her charisma, work, or the pull of Hindutva in Mathura and Vrindavan.
In Hathras, BJP's Anoop Pradhan Balmiki decisively defeated the Samajwadi Party's Valmiki candidate. Aligarh remained a BJP stronghold with Satish Kumar Gautam emphatically beating Samajwadi Party's Brijendra Singh.
Agra's two Lok Sabha seats presented mixed signals for the BJP as candidates were repeated.
In Fatehpur Sikri (Agra rural), BJP's Raj Kumar Chahar faced a tough contest against Rameshwar Singh, the son of a sitting BJP legislator Choudhary Babu Lal, and an ex-army man Ram Nath Sikarwar from the Indi-Alliance.
Rameshwar till the last moment remained hell-bent on disturbing the apple cart of Raj Kumar Chahar. But after a fierce battle, Chahar emerged victorious.
Union minister S. P. Singh Baghael's victory was never in doubt. A seasoned politician with five Lok Sabha terms and one Rajya Sabha term, Baghael defeated the INDI-Alliance candidate by 2.71 lakh votes. His aides suggest a ministry position in the Modi government is imminent, given his prominence as a powerful Scheduled Caste leader.
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