Uttar Pradesh: In Basti and Ambekar Nagar, alliance has an edge

BASTI/AMBEDKAR NAGAR: Located between Ayodhya and Gorakhpur, which are the two religious capitals of Uttar Pradesh, Basti and Ambedkar Nagar constituencies, which will go to polls on Sunday, are examples where the SP-BSP alliance seems to have a clear edge.

The caste equation in both these adjoining seats is posing a stiff challenge to the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi did rallies in both these constituencies in the past week to put his party back in contention here. Local BJP leaders, whom ET spoke to in both seats, however conceded it was an uphill battle in both places.

BJP has repeated its MP Harish Dwivedi as its candidate from Basti but replaced the incumbent MP with local MLA and UP Cabinet minister Mukut Bihari Verma in Ambedkar Nagar. In the latter seat, BJP is in a direct fight with Ritesh Pandey of the alliance who is in pole position after the candidature of the Congress candidate was rejected.

Mayawati has further fuelled speculation by hinting that she could contest from Ambedkar Nagar; a seat she had represented earlier, if need be after the results on May 23. Putting up a Brahmin from this seat seems to be solidifying the alliance vote-bank here, especially after BJP dropped its Brahmin face MP Hari Om Pandey as candidate.

In Basti, BJP’s Harish Dwivedi got PM Modi to do a rally from his constituency to boost his chances, but the alliance with its candidate Ram Prasad Chaudhary still seems strong on the ground. The Congress candidate here, Raj Kishor Singh, is playing a spoiler for Chaudhary and Priyanka Gandhi campaigned for him here on Friday.

ET had caught up alliance candidate Ram Prasad Chaudhary at Mayawati’s rally in Basti on May 6 where he told ET: “All like me, a son of a farmer. BJP will not let another election happen in the country and hence people know the alliance is their only hope.” At the well-attended rally, Mayawati had slammed BJP and the Congress in equal measure.

Chaudhary had finished third in 2014 but polled 2.83 lakh votes, behind SP candidate who polled 3.24 lakh votes and BJP’s Dwivedi who polled 3.57 lakh votes. If one goes by plain arithmetic, Basti seems a done deal for the SP-BSP alliance, and it is pretty much the same in Ambedkar Nagar where SP and BSP candidates together polled 51% votes in 2014.

BJP is now banking mainly on the ‘Modi magic’ to tilt the scales in its favour. In Ambedkar Nagar on May 1, Modi stressed on the work done by BJP to honour Bhim Rao Ambedkar and pointed out how Mayawati had only used Ambedkar’s legacy. In Basti on May 4, the PM said the alliance was wrongly treating voters as transferrable vote-banks when they had voted for development.