Lucknow: The challenges for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the second phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Election 2022 will be greater than before as most of the 55 seats polled in the second phase have a Muslim majority and The activity of Muslim religious leaders of Barelvi (Bareilly) and Deoband (Saharanpur) also increases during elections.
In the second phase of elections to the 403-member Uttar Pradesh assembly, polling will be held in 55 constituencies on February 14 and a notification for this will be issued on January 21. These include Saharanpur, Bijnor, Amroha, Sambhal, Moradabad, Rampur in western Uttar Pradesh, besides 55 assembly constituencies in Bareilly, Badaun, Shahjahanpur districts of Rohilkhand. In the 2017 assembly elections, out of 55 seats in this area, 38 seats went to BJP, 15 to Samajwadi Party (SP) and two to Congress. The last assembly election was fought jointly by the SP and the Congress. The party’s Muslim candidates won 10 out of 15 seats in the account of SP. Whereas in the first phase of 58 seats, BJP won 53 seats, SP and Bahujan Samaj Party got two and Rashtriya Lok Dal got only one seat.
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BJP’s State Vice President and MLC Vijay Bahadur Pathak claimed in a conversation with ‘PTI-Bhasha’, “In the second phase also, BJP will win more seats than before because the BJP government at the Center and the state gave priority to the development of all sections and this thing people feel. The people suffering from loot, misappropriation and corruption under the rule of Congress for a long time in the state and then for 15 consecutive years under the rule of SP-BSP will not give these parties a chance again. Akhilesh Yadav has seen alliance with all of Congress, BSP and public has taught him a lesson.
It is noteworthy that the SP formed an alliance with the Congress in the 2017 Assembly elections and with the BSP and the Rashtriya Lok Dal in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In both the elections, in these 55 seats, the politics of the alliance benefited as compared to the BJP. But this time, with SP, BSP and Congress being in separate election fray, political critics claim that there will be a split of votes and BJP can get its benefit. The BSP has also fielded Muslim candidates in this area and has also increased its activism.
It should be noted that in the last assembly elections, where SP and Congress won a total of 17 seats, in the Lok Sabha elections, seven out of 11 seats in this area were part of the BSP-SP alliance. Of these, the BSP won four seats (Saharanpur, Nagina, Bijnor and Amroha) while the SP had won three seats in Moradabad, Sambhal and Rampur. One thing is clear from this that the formula of alliance of Muslim, Jat and Dalit voters was successful in this stronghold.
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This time the SP has formed an alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal and Mahan Dal operating in western UP, which are believed to have influence in the Jat, Shakya, Saini, Kushwaha, Maurya, Koiri fraternity. The SP, which has influence over the Yadav fraternity, is also trying to make an important equation in its favor with the arrest of Rampur MP and former minister Azam Khan, who has been in Sitapur jail for nearly two years in various criminal cases including land grabbing. . SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has accused the ruling BJP of implicating Azam in a fake case and harassment.
SP’s National Secretary and Chief Spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary claimed in a conversation with ‘PTI-Bhasha’ that the lies and fraud of the BJP have been exposed. This time the people of the state will send the BJP on exile. The SP alliance is in a very strong position in the polling areas in the second phase.” Another SP leader claimed “The equation of Swami Prasad Maurya and Dharam Singh Saini, who resigned from the BJP, along with the SP, RLD alliance, and Keshav Dev Maurya of the Mahan Dal will prove to be very strong and the BJP will be wiped out from here.” ”
However, Swami Prasad’s daughter Sanghamitra Maurya is currently a BJP MP from Badaun and has not left the party. On the other hand, Congress is also trying to strengthen its ground. On Monday, Maulana Tauqir Raza Khan, religious guru of Barelvi Muslims and president of Ittehad-e-Millat Council (IMC), announced the support of Congress candidates in the assembly elections in five states, including Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
Expressing gratitude to Khan who announced his support in a joint press conference with Uttar Pradesh Congress President Ajay Kumar Lallu last Monday, Lallu said that this support would play an important role in forming the government in Uttar Pradesh in the coming days.
On the other hand, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi has also declared his candidates for some seats in this zone. In this zone, he left the Congress last year and joined the BJP and became the Minister of Science and Technology in the Yogi government. Pandit Jitin Prasad will also be on the electoral test. Shahjahanpur is his home district and as a Brahmin leader, the BJP has brought him forward. (agency)