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Polling moves to heart of UP; to complete halfway mark today
Wednesday’s phase will cover a large part of central UP, including Lucknow. A total of six central UP districts are in the fray this time along with one district each in Bundelkhand, Rohilkhand and east UP
A total of 21,290,564 voters are set to cast their votes in this phase to decide from 624 candidates. The polling will begin at 7am on Wednesday and will continue till 6pm.
The election commission (EC) said on Tuesday it had made elaborate arrangements to hold fair, safe and peaceful polls. Chief electoral officer Ajay Kumar Shukla said 91 of the total 624 candidates in the fray are women.
“With a view to keep strict vigil on the fourth phase polls, the commission has deployed 57 general, nine police and 18 expenditure observers apart from 1,712 sector magistrates, 210 zonal magistrates, 105 static magistrates and 3,110 micro observers,” Shukla said.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the region in the 2017 assembly elections with 50 of 59 seats, the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party clinched 40 of the seats in the 2012 elections.
In 2017, the SP won 4 seats, the Congress won 2, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won 2 and BJP ally Apna Dal-S won a seat.
In 2012, however, the BJP could win only 4 seats, while the BSP won 12 seats; the Congress won 2 and the Peace Party won a single seat.
“The trend that began with western UP continues even to the fourth phase — the picture is unclear and confusing. It’s going to be a very tough fight between the BJP and SP,” said SK Dwivedi, a political analyst and the former head of Lucknow University’s department of political science.
CEO Shukla said the commission has deployed one senior general observer, two senior police observers and two senior expenditure observers at the state level to keep an eye on the polls.
He added that paramilitary forces had been deployed in adequate number to take care of booths, EVMs and strong rooms. “The commission has also made arrangements for live webcast of 50% of the total 24,643 booths under 13,817 polling centres,” he added.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi addressed a virtual rally for Rae Bareli voters on Monday and her daughter and party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra camped there for two days, making a fervent appeal to people to reject the BJP and vote for Congress.
Of the five assembly seats in the district, the Congress could win none in 2012 but won two seats in 2017. The Congress’s 2017 winner on the Rae Bareli assembly seat is now contesting the same seat as a BJP candidate.
The BJP won eight of the total nine seats of Lucknow in 2017 and SP only one, while the SP won seven in 2012 and BJP only one.
This phase has some interesting contests lined up with the spotlight on SP’s Hardoi MLA and now deputy speaker Nitin Agrawal as the BJP candidate.
Former Enforcement Directorate officer Rajeshwar Singh (BJP) is pitted against ex-SP minister Abhishek Singh on Lucknow’s Sarojininagar seat.
First-timer, SP’s Pooja Shukla (the student leader who made the headlines for showing a black flag to chief minister Yogi Adityanath in June 2017), is contesting on the Lucknow North seat.
Aditi Singh, who won the Rae Bareli seat as Congress candidate in 2017, is now defending the same seat as a BJP candidate.
Asha Singh, the Unnao rape victim’s mother, is contesting as a Congress candidate in the Unnao seat.
Dwivedi added that the narrative of the campaign now seems to be shifting to terrorism.
Political analyst CP Rai agreed and said this is perhaps because the SP and its allies are doing “better than the BJP...so far.”
On Friday, after a verdict in the 2008 Ahmedabad blasts case, BJP leaders, including PM Narendra Modi, accused the Congress and especially the SP of being soft on terrorism.
After Wednesday’s phase, the battle will move mostly east in the state.
The seventh and final phase is scheduled for March 7 and counting of votes is scheduled for March 10.
With HTC inputs
