UP Elections 2022 Phase 5: From KP Maurya to Krishna Patel; here are 5 key battles

The heartland of the Ayodhya Ramjanmabhoomi movement goes to polls on Sunday -in the fifth phase of elections in Uttar Pradesh. With 692 candidates in poll fray, a tough battle will be witnessed between BJP and SP for the 61 seats in the saffron stronghold in 12 districts - Sultanpur, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Barabanki, Bahraich, Shravasti and Gonda. Polling will start at 7 AM and will continue till 6 PM. Results for the 7-phase elections will be announced on March 10.

Republic P-MARQ Opinion poll predicts that BJP and its allies are likely to retain power with the party projected to win 252-272 seats in the 403-member Assembly. On the other hand, Samajwadi Party+ is looking to bag 111-131 seats. Other parties are likely to have small gains. BSP is likely to bag 8 - 16, Congress 3-9 and others 0-4 seats.

Here are 5 key fights:

Kunda: Raghuraj Pratap Singh (Raja Bhaiya) Vs Gulshan Yadav

Raghuraj Pratap Singh a.k.a Raja Bhaiya - Jansatta Dal Loktantrik chief - a six-time MLA is facing an SP opposition for the first time in two decades. Raja Bhaiya - a prominent figure from the Thakur community - faces SP's Gulshan Yadav who is his own former aide. Singh, who was a minister in both SP governments, fell out with Akhilesh Yadav in 2018 after he allegedly voted in favour of the BJP Rajya Sabha candidate in 2018. SP has reportedly been wooing the Yadavs by pitting them against the Thakurs as a poll pitch. In 2017, Raja Bhaiya won with more than 1.35 lakh votes.

Pratapgarh: Apna Dal (K) chief Krishna Patel Vs Rajendra Kumar

With Apna Dal (K) chief Krishna Patel in the poll fray, her daughter Anupriya Patel pulled out Apna Dal candidate at the last minute, resulting in BJP fielding Rajendra Kumar. The NDA camp was caught by surpise when Krishna Patel was fielded from the SP camp and its national general secretary Rajendra Prasad had already filed his nomination papers. In 2019 bypolls, Rajkumar Pal of Apna Dal (S) won the seat by defeating SP's Brijesh Verma while BJP's Sangam Lal Gupta won the Lok Sabha polls that year.

Sirathu: Keshav Prasad Maurya Vs Pallav Patel

A battle between heavyweights will be witnessed in Sirathu - BJP's Dy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya and Apna Dal (K) Pallavi Patel - Union minister Anupriya Patel's elder sister. Falling under the Kaushambi district, Sirathu is dominated by Dalits, Patels and Pandits - an uphill task for Maurya too woo. The Deputy CM has won Sirathu in 2012 and was later nominated to the UP council. Maurya - the ex-UP BJP chief successfully led the party to a victory in 2017 before being piqued by Yogi Adityanath. Akhilesh Yadav's wife - Dimple Yadav and Jaya Bachchan rallied for Patel in Sirathu.

Allahabad South: Nand Gopal Gupta Vs Alpana Nishad

Sitting BJP minister Nand Gopal Gupta faces Congress' Alpana Nishad, SP's Raees Chandra Shukla, BSP's Devendra Mishra Nagraha and AAP's Altaf Ahmad for the saffron stronghold Allahabad South, falling under Prayagraj district. In 2017, Nand Gopal Gupta had defeated SP's Parvez Ahmad with a margin of 28587 votes. Similarly, in 2019, BJP's Rita Bahuguna Joshi won from Allahabad Lok Sabha seat with a margin of 184275 votes by defeating SP's Rajendra Singh Patel.

Ayodhya: Tej Narayan Pandey Vs Ved Prakash Gupta

Falling under the Ayodhya district, the Assembly seat falls in the heart of the Mandir movement and is a saffron stronghold. BJP has once again fielded sitting MLA Ved Prakash Gupta against SP's Tej Narayan Pandey. In 2017, Gupta defeated Pandey - a prominent Brahmin face  (the dominant community in Ayodhya) -  by a margin of 50,440 votes.