Awadhesh Prasad (born 31 July 1945) is an Indian politician serving as the Lok Sabha Member of Parliament from Faizabad and a founding member of the

Samajwadi Party The Samajwadi Party ( SP; translation: ''Socialist Party'', founded 4 October 1992) is a Socialism, socialist political party in India, headquartered in New Delhi but mainly based in Uttar Pradesh, with significant presence in other states as w ...

(SP). He is presently the general secretary of the national executive of SP and he was a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly till 4 June 2024 when he was elected as an MP. He has been a nine time MLA elected from the erstwhile Sohawal (SC) constituency in

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

and as of latest from Milkipur (SC) in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

and

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

. He has become a minister for six times in the Government of Uttar Pradesh and been a cabinet minister in four of them.

Political career

Prasad, who comes from Pasi Dalit community, began his political career at the age of 21. He was the Ayodhya district co-convener of the anti-Emergency Sangarsh Samiti. He was also the polling agent of the Lok Dal at Amethi during the

1977 Indian general election General elections were held in India between 16 and 20 March 1977 to elect the members of the 6th Lok Sabha. The elections took place during the Emergency period, which expired on 21 March 1977, shortly before the final results were announced ...

. He became the national secretary and was inducted into the central parliamentary board when the Samajwadi Party was founded in 1992. In the party, he has generally functioned as an organisation man since then. He became minister in the Janata Party governments of

Ram Naresh Yadav Ram Naresh Yadav (1 July 1928 – 22 November 2016) was an Indian politician who was Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 1977 to 1979. He was from Janata Party; later he joined the Congress. He also served as Governor of Madhya Pradesh from 26 ...

and Babu Banarasi Das and in the Samajwadi Party governments of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav. He has a close association with the party president Akhilesh Yadav and was one of the few veteran leaders to have sided with him during the pre-2017 election leadership contest within the party. In the

2024 Indian general election General elections are expected to be held in India between April and May 2024 to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha. Background The tenure of the 17th Lok Sabha is scheduled to end on 16 June 2024. The previous general elections were held ...

Prasad won as the Member of Parliament from the

Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 80 Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituencies in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It includes Ayodhya city And Faizabad city. Assembly segments Presently, Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency comprises f ...

. This win has been seen as of deep interest within the

because it encompasses the city of Ayodhya where resides the Ram Temple which was set-up in the previous term ( 2019-2024). Analysts credited his win to failure of BJP's Abki Baar 400 Paar slogan and

's strategy of leveraging social politics by capitalizing on the significant OBC voter base, including Kurmis and Yadavs, aligning OBCs, Dalits, and Muslims to edge out the BJP.

Electoral record

Legislative Assembly

Lok Sabha

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prasad, Awadhesh 1945 births University of Lucknow alumni Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar University alumni Living people Samajwadi Party politicians Uttar Pradesh MLAs 1977–1980 Uttar Pradesh MLAs 1985–1989 Uttar Pradesh MLAs 1989–1991 Uttar Pradesh MLAs 1993–1996 Uttar Pradesh MLAs 1997–2002 Uttar Pradesh MLAs 2002–2007 Uttar Pradesh MLAs 2007–2012 Uttar Pradesh MLAs 2012–2017 Uttar Pradesh MLAs 2022–2027 India MPs 2024–2029