With 10 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh going to polls on May 7 in the third phase, election campaigning in India’s politically most crucial State reached a crescendo with all the political parties hitting top gear.
Sambhal, Hathras, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Badaun, Bareilly and Aonla vote on the back of a raucous campaign in which top leaders across political parties have rooted for their core and long-standing issues.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and State Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath led the BJP’s charge against, what they called, dynasty and appeasement politics of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP), and slammed the Opposition for declining the Ram Temple invitation. The SP, which has much at stake in phase three, pushed its caste census pitch and alleged that the BJP will end reservation and hence is seeking 400-plus seats in the Lok Sabha.
Of the 10 seats that will vote, the BJP had won eight — Hathras, Agra, Firozabad, Fatehpur Sikri, Etah, Badaun, Bareilly and Aonla — in 2019 with Mainpuri and Sambhal going to the SP.
In many of the seats in phase three, the BJP is locked in a direct fight against the SP-led INDIA bloc, with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) aiming to make the contest three-cornered. In Sambhal, which has a sizeable Muslim electorate, the SP’s Zia Ur Rahman Barq is facing the BJP’s Parmeshwar Lal Saini. Sambhal has remained a tough electoral terrain for the BJP, with the party winning the seat only once. In Hathras, a Scheduled Caste-reserved constituency, the SP’s Jasveer Valmiki is taking on Anoop Pradhan of the BJP.
This phase will be a test for the SP’s first family as well, with Dimple Yadav, Akshay Yadav and Aditya Yadav contesting Mainpuri, Firozabad and Budaun respectively. In Mainpuri, an SP bastion that the party has never lost, sitting MP Ms. Yadav is taking on Jaiveer Singh of the BJP. In Firozabad, the BJP candidate Chandra Sen Jadon is contesting against Mr. Akshay.
The campaigning in these seats remained stormy with Mr. Shah questioning the SP president Akhilesh Yadav over dynasty politics and wondering whether the Opposition party had failed to find any ‘Yadav’ candidate from outside the family.
“The SP claims to represent Yadavs. I want to tell you, Mulayam Singh ji became the CM, then his son became the CM and after his (Mulayam Singh Yadav) death the daughter-in-law became the MP. This time Akhilesh ji is contesting from Kannauj, Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri, Aditya Yadav from Budaun, Akshay Yadav from Firozabad and Dharmendra Yadav from Azamgarh. My simple question to Akhilesh ji, don’t you find other Yadavs outside your family,” he asked, addressing a gathering in Mainpuri in support of BJP candidate Mr. Singh.
In the region, which has a sizeable OBC population primarily from the Yadav caste group, the SP president is his speeches continuously pushed the caste census while attacking the BJP over Mr. Shah’s ‘Yadav’ family statement. Mr. Yadav called the BJP not only the ‘most dangerous family’ in India, but in the whole world.
“The BJP is not only the most dangerous family of India but of the world. Along with them there is another dangerous family which wanted to end reservation. Now when they want votes they are saying that reservation will not end,” Mr. Yadav said at an election rally in Etah.
