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UP: In Pratapgarh seat, parties count on caste-matrix to upset others’ applecart

Dominated by Brahmins, Patels (OBC), Muslims and Baniya (traders) communities, the seat was won by the BSP in 2007 and Samajwadi Party in 2012.

up bypolls, pratapgarh seat bypoll, up elections, lucknow news, The BJP has this time too given the seat to its alliance partner Apna Dal, which has fielded Raj Kumar Pal. (File)

Considered a bellwether seat, Pratapgarh Assembly constituency, in the last three elections, has elected the party or the alliance that goes on to form the government in Uttar Pradesh. Dominated by Brahmins, Patels (OBC), Muslims and Baniya (traders) communities, the seat was won by the BSP in 2007 and Samajwadi Party in 2012. The BJP, which had been coming third in 2007 and 2012 with a vote share of 23 per cent and 21 per cent, managed to grab the seat from the two parties in the last Assembly election in 2017 by forming an alliance with Apna Dal, which too had won nearly the same number of votes in 2012 polls.

In this by-election, which has been necessitated by the resignation of the sitting Apna Dal MLA — Sangam Lal Gupta who won the Lok Sabha seat this April on a BJP ticket — the ruling party is falling back on the same caste combination — BJP’s upper caste vote bank coalescing with the Patel OBC vote share of Apna Dal.

The BJP has this time too given the seat to its alliance partner Apna Dal, which has fielded Raj Kumar Pal. People in the area say that Pal is considered as a grassroots worker and has been gram pradhan of the village adjoining the city. Even his wife has been a gram pradhan.

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The Samajwadi Party and BSP, however, want to regain the seat.

Breaking from the tradition, the BSP is contesting bypoll this time and has fielded a strong candidate from the backward community in Ranjeet Patel. Belonging to a political family — Patel’s father and mother have been MLAs in the past — Patel’s wife, Sushmita Patel, is currently BSP MLA from Jaunpur. Ranjeet Patel was a state government officer before entering politics recently.

Festive offer

Like BSP, the Samajwadi Party has also chosen a Kurmi (OBC) face to challenge BJP and its ally Apna Dal in the seat. Notably, SP candidate Brijesh Verma, a businessman by profession, is the son of Sriram Verma, who is one of the founding members of Apna Dal and had worked closely with Sonelal Patel. Thus, many in the constituency feel that the SP and BSP candidates are likely to damage each other in the polls.

The Congress, on the other hand, has fielded a rather young and educated candidate in Neeraj Tiwari. Apart from choosing a Brahmin face, the Congress is banking on the Youth Congress leader to script a turnaround story for the party. An advocate by profession, Tiwari is considered a grassroots worker.

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“Neeraj has been carefully chosen for this seat. He might not have that much money like other candidates, but is an educated and a grassroots leader, apart from being the sole Brahmin candidate from the big parties,” said a senior Congress leader.

However, days before the voting, three-time former Congress MP from Pratapgarh, Rajkumari Ratna Singh, joined the BJP, giving a blow to the party. “Our candidate has the backing of former MP Pramod Tiwari, who had accompanied Neeraj Tiwari during filing of nomination papers. Even Ajay Rai from Varanasi had joined him,” the Congress leader said.

As political parties bank on constituency caste matrix to calculate its winning formula, local BJP leader feel that induction of Rajkumari Ratna Singh would help the party to consolidate Thakur votes in its favour. With top BJP leaders extensively campaigning for the bypoll — CM Yogi Adityanath was in Pratapgarh on Tuesday — the party feels that its alliance partner will be able to retain its hold in the constituency.

Pratapgarh goes to polls on October 21 along with 10 other constituencies, and the counting will take place on October 24.

First uploaded on: 17-10-2019 at 05:13 IST
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