UP polls: Awadh to set political tune in fourth phase

Awadh is all set to compose its political tunes as polling for the fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections will be held on Wednesday.

Polling will be held at 59 Assembly seats spread across nine districts of Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Fatehpur, Pilibhit and Banda. As many as 624 candidates are in the fray in the fourth phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

Leaving Pilibhit and Banda, seven districts that are going to the polls on Wednesday fall in the Awadh region.

The state is witnessing a multi-cornered contest with Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Samajwadi Party (SP)-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) alliance, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) as principal contenders.

As a last-minute effort, the political parties held intense election campaigns on Monday in Uttar Pradesh for the fourth phase of Assembly polls. Campaigning ended in the evening on the same day.

In the 2017 Assembly polls, BJP swept in this region winning 52 seats. Looking at the demographics, these districts have a sizeable upper caste and Kurmi population, which the BJP is banking on. There is also a significant number of Dalit voters whom the SP is eyeing on.

The construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya undoubtedly has had its impact on Hindu voters. Further, the redevelopment of the Kashi Vishwanath corridor in Varanasi added another layer to it.

As a last-minute effort, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath while addressing an election campaign in Raebareli on Monday promised the launch of the Purohit Welfare Board in the state for the welfare of priests, sadhus, and special scholarship for students studying Sanskrit if the BJP is re-elected to power. This could be seen as BJP's effort to bolster the Brahmin votes in its favour.

When it comes to key issues, job losses among migrant labourers, unemployment and stray cattle menace hound the ruling BJP.

With Priyanka Gandhi Vadra steering Congress' powerpack campaigns, the party is also relying on this region for a good share of seats. The party believes Priyanka Gandhi's "Ladki hoon lad sakti hoon" campaign will mobilize women voters that might bring some good fortune.

Raebareli Sadar, an assembly segment of Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi's parliamentary constituency, is one of the key battles to watch out for with its sitting Congress MLA Aditi Singh now being a BJP nominee.

Lakhimpur Kheri hogged the national limelight after eight people, including four farmers, were killed when they were mowed down by a vehicle during a protest. Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra's son Ashish Mishra is accused in the case.

The BJP's Yogesh Verma had won the Lakhimpur seat in the 2017 Assembly polls by defeating Samajwadi Party's Utkarsh Verma Madhur with a formidable margin of more than 37,000 votes. The prestige of the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni will also be at stake in the Lakhimpur Kheri constituency. He is a local MP, besides having been at the centre of controversy after his son was named in the FIR in the incident leading to the deaths of the farmers.

Interestingly, both the BJP and the SP have repeated their candidates. The constituency caught the eyeballs in the ongoing polls because of the political heat generated by the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in the Parliament and also outside. Congress has fielded Ravi Shankar Trivedi whereas the BSP has fielded Mohan Bajpai from the seat. Khushi Kinnar from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is also in the fray along with AIMIM's Mohammad Usman Siddiqui.

Another keenly watched seat in this phase is the Sarojini Nagar seat in Lucknow where the former joint director of Enforcement Directorate, Rajeshwar Singh, is pitted against former IIM professor and a close aide of the former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Abhishek Mishra.

Unnao is one of the most talked-about seats in this phase where Congress fielded the mother of a rape survivor against the BJP's sitting MLA.

Polling for the remaining three phases of the seven-phased Uttar Pradesh elections will take place on February 27, March 3, and 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.

( With inputs from ANI )

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