Belthara Road (SC)

Overview & 2022 Context

Belthara Road, Legislative Assembly segment number 357 in Ballia district, produced a narrow contest in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls. Hansu Ram of Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) finished first with 78,995 votes (39.51%), defeating Chhathu Ram (BJP), who polled 73,481 (36.75%). The victory margin was 5,514 votes. Of 358,231 electors, 199,954 votes were polled and turnout stood at 55.82%.

The 2022 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election was a bipolar contest between the BJP-led NDA and the Samajwadi Party–led front. Campaign discourse centred on law-and-order and welfare delivery versus unemployment, inflation, farm distress and the stray-cattle problem, as widely reported during the polls; the BJP retained power while the SP improved its seat tally as the principal opposition. In this Legislative Assembly, the local verdict hinged on candidate networks and booth-level conversion as much as alliance symbols. Leading contenders by votes included: Hansu Ram (SBSP, 78,995 / 39.51%); Chhathu Ram (BJP, 73,481 / 36.75%); PRAVEEN PRAKASH (BSP, 38,803 / 19.41%); Ramlal (JANADIP, 2,093 / 1.05%).

Campaign noise statewide does not erase the arithmetic of this Legislative Assembly segment: the gap between Hansu Ram and Chhathu Ram is the binding fact for seat 357, and every other claim about caste blocs or welfare messaging has to be tested against that published margin of 5,514 votes.

Geographical & Administrative Profile

Ballia belongs to eastern Uttar Pradesh (Purvanchal), a densely settled agrarian belt. Headquartered at Ballia, the district’s politics often turn on remittances, farm labour, flood/embankment stress where rivers matter, and caste coalitions. Administratively, Belthara Road is Assembly Constituency number 357 under Ballia (headquarters: Ballia). Like neighbouring segments, it mixes rural habitations and market nodes where roads, schools, health access and welfare delivery travel with voters as strongly as statewide narratives.

Geography here is not ornamental for election reading. Flood plains, market roads and block headquarters shape who can mobilise, who migrates for work, and which booth clusters decide close Assembly Constituency contests. Belthara Road sits inside that Ballia administrative map even when national television talks only of alliances.

History & Past Election Trends

On the same constituency lineage, recent Legislative Assembly outcomes were — 2017: DHANANJAY KANNOUJIA (BJP) by 18,319 votes; 2012: GORAKH PASWAN (SP) by 10,297 votes.

Against that backdrop, the 2022 win for Hansu Ram (SBSP) in Assembly Constituency number 357 should be read as continuity where the same camp had dominated, or as another swing where the lineage had flipped before — never by treating the serial number alone as eternal identity.

Statistics & Gender-wise Polling Analysis

Electors: 358,231. Votes polled: 199,954. Turnout: 55.82%. Winner Hansu Ram (SBSP): 78,995 (39.51%); runner-up Chhathu Ram (BJP): 73,481 (36.75%); margin: 5,514 — a narrow contest relative to total votes polled in this Legislative Assembly seat.

Women slightly outnumbered men among recorded voters: male 98,182 (49.57%), female 99,874 (50.43%).

Turnout 55.82% with 199,954 votes from 358,231 electors remains the participation baseline for comparing this seat with neighbouring Legislative Assembly segments in Ballia.

Issues That Drove Voting Behavior

Statewide themes included suraksha/law-and-order messaging, labharthi welfare schemes, Hindutva-plus mobilisation, and opposition focus on jobs, price rise, farm incomes and stray cattle. In Ballia, voters also weighed migration remittances, farm labour, flood embankments, caste coalitions. a narrow contest for Hansu Ram (SBSP) against Chhathu Ram (BJP) suggests the winner’s camp converted a broader preference in seat 357.

None of those themes automatically explain every booth. The usable conclusion for Belthara Road is narrower: Hansu Ram (SBSP) outpolled Chhathu Ram (BJP) by 5,514 votes under 55.82% turnout, and that is the 2022 mandate recorded for Assembly Constituency number 357.

Reading 2022 carefully means separating statewide wave talk from booth-level conversion in Belthara Road. Hansu Ram (SBSP) converted 78,995 votes; Chhathu Ram (BJP) had 73,481. Turnout 55.82% and margin 5,514 in seat 357 signal organisational reach across polling stations rather than a single-day mood swing alone.

For journalists and researchers, the safer frame is lineage continuity plus the published 2022 table: electors 358,231, votes polled 199,954, and the head-to-head between Hansu Ram and Chhathu Ram. District cues in Ballia still matter — roads, floods, farm prices, migration and welfare delivery — but they must be weighed against what the EVM count actually recorded in this Assembly Constituency / Legislative Assembly seat.