BJP gears up to breach SP and BSP forts in Rampur, Jalalpur

LUCKNOW: Seven days to go for crucial bypolls in 11 assembly seats and BJP has its task cut out to not only retain nine seats, but also wrest Jalalpur and Rampur, both strongholds of BSP and SP respectively.
The Jalalpur seat will be a test case for BJP, which seeks to make inroads into Mayawati's vote-bank in the aftermath of the broken SP-BSP marriage. Likewise, BJP is striving hard to wrest Rampur, a district with the largest Muslim population in the state, at a time when its MP and senior SP leader Azam Khan is embroiled in corruption with 81 cases slapped on him and his family.
BJP sources said, the party has roped in BSP turncoat and UP minister Brijesh Pathak to ascertain the Dalit dynamics in Jalalpur to breach Mayawati's fort.
The BJP, party sources said, has also been wooing another Brahmin strongman, Pawan Pandey, elder brother of former BSP MP Rakesh Pandey, whose son Ritesh was MLA of Jalalpur before he got elected to the Lok Sabha in the recently concluded elections. This is seen as BJP's bid to consolidate Brahmin voters even as it fielded a Thakur, Rajesh Singh, son of former SP MLA Sher Bahadur Singh. Rajesh will be up against BSP's Chhaya Verma, daughter of BSP's legislative party leader Lalji Verma, Samajwadi Party's Subhash Rai and Congress' Sunil Mishra.
In the high-voltage election in Azam Khan's pocket borough Rampur, BJP has roped in another BSP turncoat and cabinet minister Swami Prasad Maurya to turn around Mayawati's cadre and be buoyed by a split Muslim vote. Here, BJP has fielded Bharat Bhushan Gupta, who hails from the trader community, who contested on a BSP ticket against Azam in 2012, but lost. He joined BJP just before 2017 elections. Barring BJP, all others in the fray, including SP, BSP and Congress have fielded Muslim candidates. While SP has fielded Tazeen Fatima, wife of Azam, BSP has placed its bet on Zubair Masood Khan and Congress too has fielded a Muslim, Arshad Ali Khan.
"We would not only win the nine seats which were with us, but also Jalalpur and Rampur," said UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh, who reached Rampur on Thursday to take stock of poll preparations.
He also held meetings with booth and sector level functionaries to mobilize them to take on the Opposition.