Fourth phase of UP polls Sunday; all eyes on Lucknow
Saturday February 18, 2012 06:39:21 PM,
IANS
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Lucknow: The fourth
phase of Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections Sunday has a major
focus on Lucknow where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tries to
retain its sway in the second election it faces where party
stalwart and former prime minister Atal Behari Vajayee is absent.
In the 2007 assembly elections, the charisma of Vajpayee, the
sitting MP from the city, had swept the BJP to victory in all the
four city constituencies while the four rural seats were split
between the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party
(SP).
In the polling Sunday, as many as 1.72 crore voters will elect
their representatives for 56 assembly constituencies spread across
11 districts - Lucknow, Hardoi, Unnao, Rae Bareli, Chattrapati
Shahuji Maharaj Nagar (Amethi), Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Banda,
Chitrakoot, Fatehpur and Pratapgarh.
Besides Vajpayee, other political bigwigs whose prestige and
influence are at stake in this phase are Congress president Sonia
Gandhi (who represents Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency),
party general secretary Rahul Gandhi (Amethi) and Samajwadi Party
state president Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj).
It will be an acid test for the ruling BSP which has the maximum
at stake, since the party had bagged 25 of the 56 seats in 2007.
The Samajwadi Party also was not far behind with a tally of 14,
while the BJP and the Congress had bagged seven seats each and two
seats had gone to Independents.
The phase is also crucial for several key political leaders who
are either in the fray themselves or have fielded their close kin.
Prominent among them is state Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi (Lucknow
Cantt), Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader and eight-time
legislator Pramod Tiwari (Rampur Khas in Pratapgarh) as well as
controversial politician Raguraj Pratap Singh, better known as
Raja Bhaiya, in the fray as Independent from Kunda.
Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid's wife Louise Khurshid is
seeking re-election from their family home Farrukhabad, Congress
MP Sanjay Singh's wife Amita is contesting from Amethi, and SP Lok
Sabha member Naresh Agrawal's son Nitin Agrawal is trying his luck
from the family bastion Hardoi.
Lucknow BJP MP Lalji Tandon's son Gopal Tandon is the party
candidate in Lucknow West, held for years by his father, who later
succeeded Vajpayee as the local MP.
State BSP chief and Cooperative minister Swami Prasad Maurya's son
Utkrisht Maurya is fighting his maiden election from Unchahar in
Rae Bareli district.
Slain dacoit Dadua's son Vir Singh is in the fray as an SP nominee
from Banda, while mafia don turned politician Akhilesh Singh, who
has been winning the Rae Bareli city seat for several years, as an
Independent, is now seeking re-election as a nominee of the Peace
Party.
Yet another significant candidate in Sunday's contest is woman
activist Sampat Pal, widely known for her daredevil acts as head
of a women's army known as Gulabi Gang, from Karvi in the
Chitrakoot tribal belt.
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