UP Votes on Thursday for 58 Seats in Phase 1: Fate of 9 Ministers to be Sealed; Jat Belt in Focus

The fate of several BJP heavyweights, including ministers, will be decided when the battle for Uttar Pradesh begins on Thursday. The polling in the western part of the state is scheduled to take place in 58 assembly seats spread across 11 districts.

Electoral fate of nine ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government will be decided by voters. The ministers are Srikant Sharma from Mathura, Atul Garg from Ghaziabad, Suresh Rana from Thana Bhawan, Kapildev Agarwal from Muzaffarnagar and Sandeep Singh from Atrauli. Other ministers are Laxminarayan Chaudhary from Chhata, Anil Sharma from Shikarpur, G.S. Dharmesh from Agra Cantt. and Dinesh Khatik from Hastinapur.

Other prominent names are former Uttarakhand Governor Baby Rani Maurya from Agra Rural, Uttar Pradesh BJP vice president Pankaj Singh from Noida and Mriganka Singh from Kairana.

As many as 623 candidates are in the fray in the first phase and around 2.27 crore people are eligible to vote in this phase.

It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who let the campaign of the BJP in the state and pitched for a double-engine government for fast-paced development while attacking the Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) alliance.

In their speeches, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath tried to put the spotlight back on alleged “exodus” of Hindus from Kairana before 2017. SP president Akhilesh Yadav, on the other hand, claimed that people are clear about not voting for the ruling BJP this time.

With their SP-RLD alliance, Akhilesh Yadav and Jayant Choudhary centred their campaigns around farmers’ issues and attacked the Adityanath government over poll promises.

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BSP chief Mayawati, who jumped into the poll campaigning late, reminded people of her government’s track record on law and order in the past.

The Congress, led by its general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, opted for door-to-door campaigns.

In the last Assembly polls, the BJP had swept seats in the first phase by winning almost all Assembly constituencies. Five years ago, the BJP won 53 of the 58, while Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) had two seats each and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) won one seat.

Campaigning in the constituencies going to vote in the first round of the seven-phase election in the politically crucial state ended on Tuesday evening.

The polling will start at 7 am in these constituencies according to the guidelines of the Election Commission to ensure Covid-safe polls.

The canvassing for the first phase remained confined to the virtual medium due to a ban on road shows and physical rallies in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The districts where the elections will be held are Shamli, Hapur, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Mathura and Agra. The first phase will cover the Jat-dominated belt of western UP from where farmers had participated actively in the stir against the Centre’s three agri laws in the national capital.

(With inputs from agencies)

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