LUCKNOW: 'Mandal' and 'Kamandal' will be in play in equal measures as 61 seats of Central UP, Purvanchal and
Bundelkhand
go to the polls in the fifth phase on Sunday. The region in this phase spread till Nepal borders in the north and
Madhya Pradesh
borders in the south.
Like other phases, BJP had made a sweep in this region also, winning 47 out of 61 seats and its ally Apna Dal three. SP had won five and BSP three. Two seats had gone to independents --
Raghuraj Pratap Singh
in Kunda and his aide
Vinod Kumar in neighbouring Babganj. Congress could win just one seat,
Rampur Khas
.
One common factor among 12 districts voting in the phase is a sizeable presence of non-Yadav OBCs. The voting pattern, therefore, will decide the impact of BJP's and SP's outreach to win over these small caste groups.
The fifth phase also has three big centres of Hindutva -- Ayodhya, Prayagraj and Chitrakoot. The BJP would look forward to cash in on the construction of the Ram Temple and its development works in Ayodhya, and successful organisation of Kumbh. On the other hand, SP would hope that alliance with outfits like Apna Dal (K) and SBSP would expand its reach beyond the traditional vote bank. The phase will be a litmus test for Apna Dal (S), led by Union minister and BJP ally Anupriya Patel and SP ally Apna Dal (K). They have to prove their one-upmanship and capacity to transfer votes to the two warring camps. Both Apna Dal (K) president Krishna Patel and elder daughter Pallavi Patel are contesting from Pratapgarh and Sirathu respectively. Pallavi is challenging deputy CM Keshav Maurya in Sirathu.
Six other ministers in the fray in this phase are Siddharth Nath Singh (Allahabad West), Nandgopal Nandi (Allahabad South), Rajendra Pratap Singh (Patti), Ramapati Shastri (Mankapur), Suresh Pasi (Jagdishpur) and Chandrika Prasad Upadhyay (Chitrakoot). Former minister Anupama Jaiswal is in fray from Bahraich Sadar.
The prominent faces from SP in the contest on Sunday are Tej Narain Pandey alias Pawan Pandey and Arvind Singh Gope. Among the strongmen are Raghuraj Pratap in Kunda, and BSP's Yash Bhadra Singh alias Monu Singh from Isauli (Sultanpur). Pawan Pandey is throwing a spirited challenge to BJP's sitting MLA Ved Prakash Gupta in Ayodhya. But eyeballs will be glued to the results of Goshainganj in Ayodhya. Here, SP candidate and mafia don Abhay Singh is going all out to avenge the loss he had suffered in 2017 at the hands of Indra Pratap Tiwari alias Khabbu, another strongman from Ayodhya.
As Tiwari was convicted by a court for forging documents, BJP has given ticket to his wife Arti this time. Goshainganj was a new seat carved out after delimitation in 2008. In the first election that took place in 2012, Singh defeated Khabbu while the subsequent one was clinched by Tiwari.
A similar high-octane contest is being witnessed in Gonda Sadar where sitting MLA Prateek Bhushan Singh, the son of BJP MP Braj Bhushan Singh, is contesting against SP's Suraj Singh, the nephew of deceased SP minister Vinod Kumar Singh alias Pandit Singh. Similarly in Katra Bazar, four-time BJP MLA Bawan Singh has to strengthen his fort from crashing before SP's Baijnath Dubey. "That time BSP candidate Masood Khan was also in the race and had polled 56,000 votes at the third spot. This time the fight is direct," said Sarvesh Kumar, a resident.
In Barabanki, Rakesh Verma, the son of prominent Kurmi leader Beni Prasad Verma in contesting from Kursi against sitting BJP MLA Sakendra Pratap Verma. Similarly, after tasting defeat last time in Kursi, Arvind Singh Gope is going to contest from Dariyabad. Barabanki has been considered a traditional SP bastion. However only Dharmraj Yadav could retain a seat in the district -- Barabanki Sadar in 2017. In Bahraich, barring Yasir Shah from Matera, the remaining six seats fell into BJP's kitty. While his wife Maria is contesting from Matera, Shah has locked horns with minister Anupma Jaiswal from Bahraich Sadar.