This story is from October 15, 2020

Brahmin candidates get top billing in Deoria bypoll theatre

In a rare coincidence, all four candidates for the byelection to the Deoria Assembly seat are brahmin, making it a close contest. The six other seats up for byelections in the state also appear set for a tough fight.
Brahmin candidates get top billing in Deoria bypoll theatre
Picture used for representational purpose only
LUCKNOW: In a rare coincidence, all four candidates for the byelection to the Deoria Assembly seat are brahmin, making it a close contest. The six other seats up for byelections in the state also appear set for a tough fight.
Out of 28 candidates in the byelections for seven seats, 25% are brahmins, which indicates an intense fight for the vote bank. The Congress, in its bid to regain its traditional brahmin constituency, has fielded Aarti Bajpai in Bangarmau (Unnao), Rakesh Mishra in Malhani (Jaunpur) and Mukund Bhaskar Mani in Deoria.
Samajwadi Party (SP) has fielded its local heavyweight Brahma Shankar Tripathi, former minister in Deoria, with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) too fielding a brahmin, Abhaya Nath Tewari from the seat. The BSP has also fielded a brahmin candidate in Malhani (Jaunpur), Sunil Dubey.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will apparently be depending on the charisma of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, mainly because it appears to have taken a risk by fielding candidates against the wishes of the local workers and cadres in some constituencies. For example, in Ghatampur (reserve) seat in Kanpur, there was a strong demand for the daughter of minister Kamal Rani, who died of Covid and there was sympathy for her as she had been an MP also in the past, apart from being BJP’s local strong face. But the party denied the ticket to her and fielded Upendra Paswan.
Contrary to this, the party has fielded Sangita Chauhan for byelection in Naugawan Saadat in Amroha. Sangita is the wife of Chetan Chauhan, who also died of Covid. Sangita has not been politically active, but she has been given a ticket. In the Kairana byelections to a Lok Sabha seat in 2018, the BJP had fielded the daughter of Hukum Singh, Mriganka Singh, who was also a non-political face and lost the election.
Similarly, in Deoria constituency, son of BJP MLA Janmejaya Singh who died recently was demanding to contest, but the party denied a ticket to him and fielded a Brahmin professor in a local degree college. Janmejaya Singh was an OBC-Sainthwar and BJP’s decision of fielding a Brahmin candidate when all three parties have already named Bahmin candidates, is being questioned within the party circles itself.
In Malhani constituency, the election has become interesting after ‘
bahubali’ (muscleman) ex-MP, Dhananjay Singh also plunging into the fray as an Independent candidate and filing his nomination papers on Wednesday. Malhani has been a strong bastion of the SP with its leader Parasnath Yadav an eight-time MLA who passed away recently.
The SP has fielded Parasnath’s son, Shani Yadav while the remaining three have fielded upper caste candidates in the Yadav dominated constituency. The BJP has fielded Manoj Singh, who was once named in the murder of a students’ union leader of then Allahabad University, Rajesh Yadav. The Yadavs, who are already committed to the SP, may further consolidate against the BJP candidate.
Sensing the tough battle, Yogi himself has started directly interacting with booth workers of the six constituencies where the byelection is due on November 9.
The ruling BJP will heavily depend on brand Yogi focusing on the fight against Covid 19 in the state, while the Opposition appears set to bank on the Hathras case and the spate of incidents of crime against women, the migrant crisis, joblessness and economic challenges in the state.
This will be the first major test of the Yogi government of its performance in the Covid crisis and the state government’s strategy to overcome this challenge.
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