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Prayagraj region: Heart of Uttar Pradesh vital for all parties in poll race
BJP looks to extend its sway, other parties also keen to make a mark in the Prayagraj region of Uttar Pradesh during assembly polls
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which won 13 of the 22 assembly seats in the Prayagraj region in 2017 will look to continue its sway this time too. Besides, three seats are with its ally Apna Dal.
The region comprising the three districts of Prayagraj, Pratapgarh and Kaushambi is the heart of Uttar Pradesh just as geographically UP is the heart of India. It is also the gateway to the eastern part of the state.
The BSP has two, the SP and Congress one each and Independents have two in the region.
Among the three districts, Prayagraj is the biggest. It has 12 assembly seats. The city of Prayagraj is on way to getting transformed into to a smart city in the next few years. Located on the banks of the Triveni Sangam, the Ganga Jamuni (composite) culture of this place is much discussed in intellectual circles.
Prayagraj, regarded as politically, socially and academically conscious, has given many Prime Ministers, Union ministers, governors, top bureaucrats, historians and judges of international repute and litterateurs to the nation.
The 2022 assembly polls are witnessing a key thrust on development, condition of health infrastructure, and women empowerment to name a few, in a marked shift from earlier elections in Uttar Pradesh, where political parties played primarily on caste and community with promises of development thrown in between.
Community, caste, price rise, unemployment and crime have not lost their importance in the elections.
“For the BJP, the region is significant as three state ministers—Rajendra Pratap “Moti” Singh (Patti in Pratapgarh), Nand Gopal Gupta “Nandi” (Allahabad South in Prayagraj) and Sidharth Nath Singh (Allahabad West in Prayagraj) —will seek re-election from here in 2022 too. Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who is currently an MLC, had won Kaushambi’s Sirathu seat in 2012. It was the BJP’s first ever victory there. This time, he will strive to ensure that all three seats of Kaushambi are retained by his party. Currently, BJP has Sheetla Prasad as the sitting MLA from Sirathu, besides Lal Bahadur from Manjhanpur and Sanjay Kumar Gupta from Chail,” said political scientist Prof MP Dube, former vice-chancellor of Uttar Pradesh Rajarshi Tandon Open University (UPRTOU).
If the BJP fails to match or better its tally in the Prayagraj region from the existing 13 seats (16 including three seats of ally Apna Dal), it could be seen as the loss of Keshav’s influence in the region, he maintains.
Dube said that it was no mere coincidence that top BJP leaders including PM Narendra Modi, Union road transport minister and highways minister Nitin Gadkari, chief minister Yogi Adityanath and deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya have inaugurated and laid foundation stone of hundreds of development projects worth over ₹8,700 crore in the region in December and January.
The region is no less vital for other parties, says another political commentator Prof Badri Narayan , director of Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute (GBPSSI), Prayagraj.
“Out of the 19 seats that BSP won across the state in 2017—two including Pratappur (where its candidate Mohd Mujtaba Siddqui won) and Handia (from where its candidate Hakim Lal Bind won)—fall in this very region. The importance of these two seats for the BSP can be gauged from the fact that in eastern UP, BSP won just 8 out of the 102 seats on offer in 2017,” he said. The region is prestigious for the Congress also as it traditionally was once a party bastion and is the hometown of the Nehru-Gandhi family, he says.
“Currently, it has a mere one seat (Rampur Khas in Pratapgarh from where Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Misra is the sitting MLA). This one seat was among just seven that Congress had managed to win in 2017 in UP,” he added.
The region also has former UP cabinet minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh’s assembly seat Kunda in Pratapgarh from where he has been winning non-stop from 1993 onwards, including for the sixth time in 2017.
As for the issues, Navin C Agarwal, senior chartered accountant of Prayagraj, believes that for development of any economy, inflation and subsequent price rise is a necessity.
“This is the reason since 1951, all the budgets presented by Central and state governments have witnessed increase in outlays. To grow the economy, the government has to increase the spending and to garner proportionate revenue to support that spending, price rise is a must,” he says.
He particularly appreciates the efforts of the Central government in upgrading technology by which direct account transfer is happening now, removing human interface and weeding out corruption from the system.
Referring to the Income Tax Act, he says that with the use of technology, suitable amendments have been made to remove the interface with the department by introducing faceless assessment and faceless first appeal. Further, he suggests that the government take appropriate steps to transfer benefits directly to the farmers, so that the role of middlemen is cut and that the income of the farmers can increase.
Silky Biswas, a homemaker, raised concerns over the skyrocketing prices of cooking gas, edible oils and vegetables within the last year and a half. The household income did not see much increase during this period as markets opened intermittently. Steep rise in prices has disturbed the monthly budget of the family, she claims.
“As it is, we are fighting the coronavirus and price rise. We have to now cut down on consumption of essentials,” she says.
Brijesh Kumar Shukla, a government job aspirant hailing from Pratapgarh, expresses his disappointment with the working of Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC). He also says nothing has changed in the last five years.
“In fact, a CBI inquiry was initiated earlier but no concrete report has come out in public domain. UPPSC exams are still not held as per the time published calendar and results too are not declared on time. Due to this delay, the student fraternity loses time, energy and money,” he claims.
Another youth Rajesh Kumar Srivastava, who is preparing in Prayagraj for competitive exams, says ,“Kaushambi is an international tourism destination for followers of Jains and Buddhism all over the world. Many youths can get self-employed in the field of tourism, handicrafts but lack of infrastructure development is forcing even educated youth of this region to take up daily wage-earning jobs in big cities to make ends meet.”
Saurabh Srivastava, an Allahabad high court lawyer, says a clear picture is yet to emerge on the future over the shifting of the tribunal offices out of Prayagraj.
“Earlier, the government wanted to shift them but due to massive agitation withheld it for time being. If in future the government does so, it will hurt the dignity of the city and impact the smooth operational functioning of the court,” he says.
Also, Saurabh says he fails to understand as to why during each election season, the leaders talk of establishing a bench in western UP. He is aggrieved at what he calls the failure of the law enforcement institutions to give protection to lawyers who have fallen victim to attacks.
