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Assembly elections: Over to eastern Uttar Pradesh; fifth phase today
The Uttar Pradesh assembly elections now move to the eastern part of the state as 61 assembly constituencies, spread across 12 districts, will vote in the fifth phase on Sunday.
The Uttar Pradesh assembly elections now move to the eastern part of the state as 61 assembly constituencies, spread over 12 districts, will go to polls in the fifth phase on Sunday.
Ayodhya, constantly in the limelight in the last five years over the Ram temple issue, will also vote in the fifth phase wherein
2,24,77,494 voters will decide the fate of 693 candidates in the 12 districts.
Of the 61 seats in this phase, 58 are eastern UP, two in Bundelkhand and one in central UP. Salon seat in Rae Bareli (central UP) will vote on Sunday while the other five constituencies of Rae Bareli had voted in the fourth phase.
Chitrakoot of Bundelkhand, a small district with only two constituencies, too will vote on Sunday.
The eastern UP districts in this phase are: Amethi, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Barabanki, Ayodhya, Bahraich, Shravasti and Gonda.
This phase, too, is likely to witness a see-saw battle between BJP and a resurgent Samajwadi Party. The BJP had won 47 of the 61 seats in 2017 while the SP had won 40 in 2012.
In Ayodhya also it had been a similar scenario as the BJP had won all the five assembly seats there in 2017 and the SP had won four of the five (including the Ayodhya seat) in 2012.
In 2017 BJP had won 47 seats, SP 5, BSP 3, Apna Dal-S 3, Independents 2 and Congress 1. In 2012 SP had won 40, BJP 5, Congress 7, BSP 7 and Independent 2.
The spotlight this time is on the contest in Ayodhya between sitting BJP MLA Ved Prakash and 2012 winner SP’s Tej Narayan ‘Pawan Pandey’ with both parties having fiercely campaigned in the district and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav campaigning for the first time in the temple town.
Akhilesh had earlier campaigned in the district but not in the temple town.
Amethi, which had been Congress’ citadel in Lok Sabha till Smriti Irani of BJP snatched the seat from Congress’ Rahul Gandhi, has five constituencies. But Amethi had not been a Congress stronghold so far as assembly contests are concerned.
The Congress had won none in 2017 and two in 2012.
UP political analyst CP Rai says: “It will be very tough fights in the phases from now on for the BJP. Unlike western UP regions, where the SP had traditionally been weak, eastern UP is a strong area for the ‘Gathbandhan (SP and allies).”
While SP had formed alliance with Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) for western UP, its allies for eastern UP are Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party and the Apna Dal-K.
Also, ‘migrated’ leaders like ex-minister Swami Prasad Maurya from BJP to SP and all non-Yadav OBC parties and leaders have bolstered the SP chances in eastern UP.
Interesting contests on Sunday are likely to be between deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and SP’s Pallavi Patel in Sirathu. Pallavi is from Apna Dal (K) but Akhilesh strategically fielded her as SP candidate on Sirathu seat. Pallavi is the younger sister of BJP ally Apna Dal (S) Anupriya Patel. Krishna Patel, president of Apna Dal (K) and the mother of Anupriya and Pallavi is contesting Pratapgarh seat as Apna Dal (K) candidate.
Three more ministers -- Sidharth Nath Singh, Nand Gopal Nandi and Ramapati Shastri – are contesting in this phase.
Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’, sitting Congress MLA from Rampur Khas in Pratapgarh, is defending her seat and SP has not fielded any candidate against her.
The political discourse by top leaders of both BJP and rival parties revolved around terrorism, Lord Ram, farmers and other issues.
The BJP spoke of a “cow welfare and employment through cows” plan and PM Narendra Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath talked about a lasting solution to stray cattle menace. Eastern UP faces the stray cattle menace far more than other regions.
After the fifth phase, only 111 constituencies (all eastern UP) of the total 403 in UP assembly polls will remain. A total of 231 constituencies have already voted in the first four phases.
