New Delhi, : The elections to 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh on the fifth round of voting on Monday (May 6) offer major challenges to the BJP, which had done extremely well in 2014.
According to sources, closer look at the statistics suggest in at least seven constituencies – the Samajwadi and BSP votes as polled in 2014 polls add up more than the votes polled by BJP nominees.
All eyes will be obviously on voting in Amethi and Raebareli too which are being contested by Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi respectively.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s fate would also be decided in Lucknow during Monday’s polls.
Sources maintain, the BJP is in comparatively strong position in Lucknow, Gonda, Faizabad,
Barabanki and Fatehpur, which are also going to polls on Monday.
Besides the statistics factor, the defection of sitting BJP MP Savitri Bai Phule to the Congress camp
has made things worse for the saffron party in Bahraich.
In 2014, in this constituency, the BJP had defeated Samajwadi Party nominee by 95,590 votes but the votes polled by the SP and BSP five years back add up more than what went into BJP kitty.
The saffron party has this time fielded Akshaibar Lal for the seat. Congress has fielded Savitri Bai Phule and in this constituency, BJP ally Shiv Sena also has named Rinku Sahani as its candidate.
Held by senior leader Arif Mohammed Khan as Congress leader in 1984 and then as Janata Dal candidate in 1989, the BJP had won the seat consecutively in 1991 and 1996. Arif Mohammad Khan again won the seat in 1998 but on the BSP ticket.
The seat had come back to BJP in 1999 but went to SP in 2004, Congress in 2009 and again bagged by the BJP in 2014. Law of the average in this constituency goes against the BJP.
In this year’s election, Samjwadi Party has repeated Shabbir Ahmad Balmiki and he is the Mahagathbandhan candidate and would have lion’s share of BSP votes as well.
Sources said, similarly the BJP faces tough fight in Mohanlalganj where sitting BJP MP Kaushal Kishore has been fielded again. Here BSP nominee C L Verma is the Mahagatbandhan choice.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Kishore polled 4,55,274 votes against BSP’s RK Chaudhary who received 3,09,858 votes. Therefore, the BJP has to deal with a fresh challenge as BSP has struck an alliance with Samajwadi.
In Kaushambi, in 2014, BJP’s Vinod Kumar Sonkar won this reserved seat with 4.72 per cent vote and the margin was 42,900 votes.
But SP’s votes polled along with that of BSP would give the Mahagatbandhan a lead of over 1.58 lakh and this is a sizeable gap to be made up.
Yet again, on similar ground, the BJP’s road to victory would be tough in Sitapur, Banda, Kaisarganj and Dhaurahra.
(UNI)
