Litmus test of Dalit consolidation bid of parties
![](https://www.justicenews.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/images-7.jpeg)
Over 2.46 crore voters will be eligible to exercise their voting rights in this phase. Thirteen seats going to the polls on Monday had seen almost 59% voting in 2019.
Akhilesh represented Kannauj from 2000 till 2012 when he vacated the seat to take over as the UP CM. Akhilesh’s wife Dimple won the seat in a bypoll and then retained it in 2014. The biggest upset came in 2019 when BJP’s Subrata Pathak wrested the seat from Dimple.
Pathak is back in fray, this time to challenge the SP chief himself who has been positioning himself as the most potent rival of the saffron brigade in UP. The BSP has fielded Imran Bin Jafar who could potentially eat into Muslim vote base which has traditionally been voting in favour of the SP.
The phase will also be unique since it comprises the maximum number of five reserved seats – something which would potentially test the Dalit consolidation bid of all the political parties. The reserved seats include Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Misrikh, Etawah and Bahraich. The BJP has retained all sitting MPs in the reserved seats, except Bahraich where the saffron outfit has replaced Akshaibar Lal Gond with his son Anand Gond. Anand will be challenged by Ramesh Gautam of SP and Brajesh Sonkar of BSP.
The other seat where the BJP has replaced its sitting MP is Kanpur. Here, the BJP has fielded Ramesh Awasthi in place of party veteran Satyadev Pachauri, a move that underscores BJP’s concerted bid to consolidate its traditional Brahmin vote bank which has been voting in favour of the saffron party since the peak of Ram Temple movement in early 1990s.
Awasthi, a former journalist and considered close to the saffron brass, is relatively new to electoral politics. He will be up against SP-backed Congress candidate Alok Mishra and BSP’s Kuldeep Bhadoria, a Thakur.
A keen contest is expected in Etawah, the home district of SP clan. The constituency, harboring the ambitious lion safari project of the previous SP govt, is also known for being the caste alliance lab of BSP founder Kanshiram who won the seat in 1991 with the support of the then Janta Party leader and SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Etawah, which was the political backyard of SP between 1999 and 2009, saw the electorate shifting loyalty to BJP in 2014 when the party stormed to power with an overwhelming majority under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi. BJP’s Ashok Dohre won the seat in 2014. When he switched over to Congress, the BJP fielded former SC/ST commission chairperson Ram Shakar Katheria who won the seat in 2019. Katheria, a Dhanuk Dalit, is back in the fray and is up against SP’s Jitendra Dohre, a Jatav, the caste to which BSP chief Mayawati belongs.
An interesting contest is brewing in Unnao where BJP has repeated its sitting MP Sakshi Maharaj, a Lodh. A five term MP, he won from Mathura in 1991, from Farrukhabad in 1996 and 1998 and then eventually Unnao in 2014 and 2019. This time he faces SP’s Annu Tandon.
Courtesy : TOI
Note: This news is originally published in timesofindia.com and was used solely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Rights.