Third phase of UP panchayat polls today; focus to be on Amethi, Unnao districts

LUCKNOW: As panchayat elections enter the third phase on Monday, the political focus will be on key districts like Amethi, the former stronghold of Congress which was wrested by the BJP in Lok Sabha elections, and Unnao, the nerve centre of upper caste politics which has been under the influence of expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar.
The penultimate phase of panchayat polls will have contests in 20 districts, including those in politically crucial east UP region – Chandauli, Deoria, Balrampur, Siddharthnagar and Ballia.The grass roots level electoral battle will also be held in some of west UP districts like Moradabad, Shamli, Meerut, Firozabad and Kasganj. Other districts going to polls are Mirzapur, Hamirpur, Barabanki, Fatehpur, Pilibhit, Jalaun, Kanpur Dehat and Auraiyya.
These 20 districts have 746 zila panchayat wards on which 10,610 candidates are trying their luck. Polls will also be held in 18,530 Kshetra Panchayat wards where 89,149 candidates are in fray. This phase will also have contest in 14,379 gram panchayats where 1,17,781 candidates are in fray. In all, over 3.05 crore voters will exercise their franchise in 49,789 polling booths in this phase. Ballia has the highest 58 zila panchayat wards, followed by Barabanki and Deoria which have 57 and 56 wards, respectively. Deoria also has the maximum 1,185 gram panchayats. A keen contest is expected to be witnessed in Unnao from where BJP was earlier planning to field Sangeeta Sengar, wife of Unnao rape convict Kuldeep Sengar. The BJP, however, could not sustain candidature of Sangeeta Sengar, the former chairperson of Unnao zila panchayat, following criticism from party ranks. Later, BJP gave ticket to a local BJP functionary, Shakun Singh.
The BJP will also seek to establish its supremacy in Amethi, the parliamentary constituency of Union minister Smriti Irani, who defeated Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the otherwise pocket borough of the grand old party.
A senior BJP leader said the party seeks to strengthen its position in Amethi ahead of assembly elections. In 2017 assembly elections, BJP had won four of five assembly seats in Amethi – Tiloi, Salon, Jagdishpur and Amethi. Only Gauriganj was won by Samajwadi Party’s Rakesh Pratap Singh.