Uttar Pradesh saw 57.93% polling on 14 seats in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha election on Monday. The turnout improved a little from 55.69% recorded in the 2014 general election.
This phase of polls, covering the region of Awadh, holds significance not only for the BJP, which had won 12 of the 14 seats in 2014, but also for the Congress. The arithmetic of the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance would also be tested here.
The constituencies of Rae Bareli and Amethi, held by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi respectively, are among the seats that the Congress hopes to win. In Amethi, where Mr. Gandhi defeated Smriti Irani of the BJP last time by a much-reduced margin of around 1 lakh votes, he is facing another fierce challenge from the BJP candidate.
In Rae Bareli, Ms. Gandhi is fighting an ally-turned-foe, Dinesh Pratap Singh. Both the constituencies witnessed a jump in the voting percentage — Amethi climbed from 52.38 to 53.20 while Rae Bareli polled 53.68 as against 51.74 in 2014.
Ms. Irani alleged “booth capturing” in Amethi and shared a video of a woman who claimed that she was forced to vote for the Congress though she wanted to vote for the BJP. “Rahul Gandhi must answer. He used to steal earlier as well but now he has come to steal votes. Rahul Gandhi’s politics is that if he does not get the mandate he will steal it,” Ms. Irani told reporters. She said the people of the country should decide “whether this kind of politics should be punished or not”.
Triangular contest
In Lucknow, BJP’S Rajnath Singh is locked in a triangular battle against the SP’s Poonam Sinha and the Congress’ Pramod Krishnam.
In Faizabad, where Ayodhya is located, the BJP fought on the issue of development and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal, and not on the Ram Mandir promise. Incumbent BJP MP Lallu Singh also faces a triangular contest from SP’s Anand Sen Yadav and the Congress’ Nirmal Khatri, a former MP.
The fifth phase in U.P. included several seats that the Congress had won in the past and hopes to do well this time too on the back of strong candidates.
In Bahraich, the Congress has fielded rebel BJP MP Savitribai Phule, and in Barabanki, former MP P.L. Punia’s son Tanuj Punia is in the fray. The Congress has fielded reasonably strong candidates in Banda and Fatehpur too. In Dhauraha, Jitin Prasada of the Congress hopes to replicate his 2009 win, while Mohanlalganj, the rural seat of Lucknow, is locked in a triangular contest among three Pasi (Dalit) candidates — R.K. Chaudhary of the Congress, incumbent BJP MP Kaushal Kishor and C.L. Verma of the BSP.
