As Prayagraj votes in 5th phase, five constituencies to watch out for

PRAYAGRAJ: As political parties face poll heat in the fifth phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections on Sunday, all eyes will be on high-profile Sirathu seat in neighbouring Kaushambi and Kunda in Pratapgarh and three urban constituencies of Prayagraj, which will witness a close fight between the sitting MLAs and candidates of the opposition parties.
10 years after BJP’s Keshav Prasad Maurya won from Sirathu for the first time as a VHP firebrand import, he is back to his home turf — this time as a high-profile deputy chief minister. But a prudent move by SP to field Apna Dal (Kamerawadi)’s Pallavi Patel and local caste equations have made Team Maurya make extra effort. The constituency has a total of 3,80,838 voters, with SC, Muslims, Yadavs and Patels have dominance in the two development blocks of Kada and Sirathu that form the area. The electors rue lack of development in the past five years, which could be one of the deciding factors.
Sitting MLA Seetla Prasad of BJP won the 2017 elections with the margin of 26,203 votes (he got 78,621 votes) against Vachaspati of the SP, who fetched 52,418 votes. In 2012, Maurya wrested the seat with 48,997 votes, but vacated the seat after winning the Lok Sabha polls in 2014. Vachapati, who won from the seat on a BSP ticket in 2007, got re-elected in the bypoll.
Similarly, Allahabad West is yet another seat witnessing an interesting contest. The constituency has often been in news for “mafiaraj” and “voter polarisation”. Between 1989 and 2004, the seat was dominated by mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad. After getting elected as an MP from Phulpur, Atiq resigned from the seat forcing a by-election in November 2004 that saw BSP’s Raju Pal, also known for his criminal antecedents, getting elected. Pal defeated Ahmad’s younger brother Khalid Azim aka Ashraf, breaking Atiq’s long dominance on the seat. Later, Pal was gunned down in broad daylight on January 25, 2005, and Azim got elected as MLA beating Pal’s widow Pooja, who contested as a BSP candidate. However, Pooja won from the seat beating Azim in 2007 and Apna Dal’s Atiq Ahmad in 2012. The Modi wave in 2017, however, saw BJP’s Sidharth Nath Singh getting elected from the seat.
Allahabad North constituency is home to intellectual voters since 1957. Between 1962 and 1977, Rajendra Kumari Bajpai of Congress won four times, while her son Ashok Kumar Bajpai, also of Congress, got elected in 1980. In 1985, 1989, 2007 and 2012, Anugrah Narayan Singh of Congress won from the seat. Between 1991 and 2002, BJP’s Narendra Kumar Singh Gaur was elected MLA. The 2017 polls saw Harshvardhan Bajpai, the grandson of Rajendra Kumari Bajpai, becoming MLA, albeit on a BJP ticket.
Likewise, Allahabad South assembly seat too is considered a BJP stronghold. Out of the last eight elections, BJP candidates have won six times. Pt Keshari Nath Tripathi, former West Bengal governor and former UP assembly speaker, won the assembly polls for five consecutive times from this seat between 1989 and 2002. However, in 2007 elections, Nand Gopal Gupta “Nandi” won from this seat on a BSP ticket by defeating Tripathi and Rita Bahuguna Joshi of the Congress. In 2012, SP’s Haji Parvez Ahmad Tanki beat Nandi by a slender margin of just 414 votes to get elected, but Nandi made a comeback in the 2017 polls contesting on a BJP ticket. He trounced Tanki by 28,587 votes and is yet again contesting from here.
Another interesting seat is Kunda, which is known for six-time Independent MLA and former UP minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh aka “Raja Bhaiya”. After Raja Bhaiya entered politics in 1993, SP fielded its candidates Tahir Hussain in 1993 and Mohd Sami in 2002. However, it supported him in three consecutive elections in 2007, 2012 and 2017 by fielding no candidate against him.
This time, after a gap of almost 20 years, SP has announced the candidature of Gulshan Yadav, a former nagar panchayat chairman and a former aide of Raja Bhaiya, who would be contesting from his party Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik).