UP Election 2022: In the capital of Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow's Sarojininagar assembly constituency, there is a close contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP). Situated to the south of Lucknow, the Sarojini Nagar assembly constituency has a mix of urban and rural voters. And today on 23rd February the constituency have held the elections.
Urban voters are with BJPMore than fifty gram panchayats come under the constituency. Urban voters generally align with the BJP, while rural voters are reluctant to show their support for any specific party.
Villagers have their complaintsDeepak Verma, a resident of Barauna village in the constituency said, “Our village is located barely a kilometer away from the housing society developed by the LDA (Lucknow Development Authority), yet the connectivity to our village is in a dilapidated condition. We have written to the BJP MLA several times but nothing happened." Apart from this, rural voters also expressed their displeasure with the ruling party over the issue of stray animals and rising inflation.
PM Modi and CM Yogi didn't do anything to stray animals - FarmerRamesh Pal, a local vegetable farmer in the area, complained, "I like Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath, but they did nothing to solve the issue of stray cattle that destroy our crops." Pal said, “We have to protect our fields from stray cattle. To save it, you need to guard full night. The prices of everyday items have also gone up over the years, thereby adjusting the expenses of the family in the limited income It's been difficult to do."
BJP gave ticket to another, SP fielded its trusted former ministerSensing the anti-incumbency wave, BJP has refused a ticket to sitting MLA Swati Singh and has given the ticket to former Enforcement Directorate (ED) director Rajeshwar Singh from this seat in the current elections. Singh has focused on the development of the constituency promising infrastructure development in his election campaign. The SP has fielded former minister Abhishek Mishra, who is known to be a confidant of party president Akhilesh Yadav.
BSP has given a ticket to a Muslim candidate Mishra has reiterated in his campaign that BJP has failed to develop in the area. BSP has fielded Muslim candidate Jalees Khan while Congress has fielded Rudra Daman Singh for this seat. Sarojini Nagar has over 5.5 lakh voters, of which almost half are rural voters.
This seat has voters of all castesThis seat includes substantial Muslim, Dalit, Kshatriya, Brahmin, and other backward caste votes. Around 1.5 lakh voters are youth who will play a vital role in deciding the winner on the seat. Sarojini Nagar has never been a stronghold of the BJP even though it comes under the urban area. The party had won this seat for the first time in 2017.SP has won this seat the most. Earlier, the Sarojininagar seat was won by SP thrice (1993, 1996, 2012), BSP twice (2002, 2007), while Congress candidate was able to win from this seat once (1991). In the year 2017, BJP candidate Swati Singh had secured more than one lakh votes. SP candidate stood second with more than 74,000 votes, followed by BSP candidate with 71 thousand votes.
According to the local people, the Congress candidate from Sarojininagar, Rudra Daman Singh can turn the game. Singh contested as an independent candidate in the 2017 elections and secured 21 thousand votes and in the 2012 elections, he secured 41 thousand votes. Voting for Lucknow's Sarojininagar seat is to be held on February 23.