Fifth phase of UP polls will witness fierce contest between SP & ruling BSP in central UP and Bundelkhand.
The UP assembly election would be witness to a fierce competition between the SP and the ruling BSP in the fifth phase of voting to be held on Thursday. This area of central UP and Bundelkhand includes Etah, Etawah and Mainpuri, a swathe known to be SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s home turf. At the same time, this phase also comprises districts like Hamirpur, Mahoba and Lalitpur of Bundelkhand where the BSP had established its supremacy in the 2007 election.
While the BSP faces an uphill task in this region to retain the 27 seats it won in 2007, the SP would try its best to gallop ahead in this area as the entire stretch from Ferozabad to Auraiyya is known as the SP’s area of influence. The SP would definitely be under pressure to do its best in this area, and better its 2007 tally of 14.
At the same time, the pressure is also on the Congress as voting in Bundelkhand would be seen as an indicator of Rahul Gandhi’s influence in this area. Rahul has visited this region a number of times, twice with the prime minister. He was also instrumental in getting a Rs8,000-crore central package for this parched and eminently backward region.
The BJP has pinned its hopes on its UP election mascot Uma Bharti to come up with a respectable tally this time around. The BJP had failed to win even a single seat in Bundelkhand in 2007. This time, it hopes Uma Bharti would win her won seat Charkhari in Mahoba district, and would also help win some other seats in the area.
The region also includes Kanpur, once known as the Manchester of the east, but now plagued by crime and unemployment which perhaps go hand in hand ever since dozens of mills in this once booming trade centre closed down.
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