Uttar Pradesh: Opposition halts saffron juggernaut, BJP fails to win any seat in Kaushambi

PRAYAGRAJ: Despite a record-setting win in assembly polls to storm back to power in Uttar Pradesh, the saffron juggernaut was halted completely in the pocket borough of Kaushambi comprising three assembly segments.
Not only deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya suffered a shocking defeat from Sirathu assembly seat, BJP also failed to open its account in the Kaushambi district.
Kaushambi parliamentary seat comprises Sirathu, Manjhanpur and Chail assembly segments of Kaushambi district and Kunda and Babaganj assembly constituencies of Pratapgarh district.
In contrast to its show in Kaushambi, BJP has won four out of five assembly seats each that come under Allahabad and Phulpur parliamentary seats.
BJP and its alliance partners won Koraon, Bara, Allahabad South, and Karchhana assembly seats and lost Meja, under Allahabad parliamentary seat.
Similarly, BJP won Allahabad North, Allahabad West, Phulpur and Phaphamau seats and lost Soraon, under Phulpur parliamentary seat.
The loss in Kaushambi, however, left an egg on the face of BJP leadership as the party lost all the five seats that fall under the parliamentary seat.
The result is perplexing since BJP had won the Kaushambi parliamentary seat in both 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
In the 2017 elections, BJP had won Manjhanpur, Sirathu and Chail seats, while Independents had triumphed in Kunda and Babaganj.
In the recent polls, Samajwadi Party (SP) and its alliance partners won Chail, Sirathu and Manjhanpur seats of Kaushambi district, while Jansatta Dal Loktantrik (JDL) won both Babaganj and Kunda assembly seats.
BJP registered its worst performance in Kunda where its candidate Sindhuja Mishra got only 8.38% votes. In Babaganj, BJP candidate Keshav Prasad polled just 18.22% votes.
In Sirathu, deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya lost to Apnn Dal (K) candidate Pallavi Patel by 7,337votes. While Maurya got 98,941 votes, Patel polled 1,06,278 votes.
In Manjhanpur, SP candidate Indrajeet Saroj got 1,21,506 votes and defeated BJP’s Lal Bahadur by 23,878 votes.
In Chail, SP candidate Puja Pal polled 88,810 votes and defeated BJP-Apna Dal(S) alliance candidate Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel by 13,201 votes.
BJP candidates stood third in both Kunda and Babaganj seats.
In the Kunda assembly seat, Jansatta Dal Loktantrik chief Raja Bhaiya got 99,612 votes and defeated SP’s Gulshan Yadav by more than 30,000 votes, while Sindhuja Mishra of BJP got only 16,455 votes.
Jansatta Dal Loktantrik candidate Vinod Kumar won Babaganj assembly seat by polling 67,282 votes. He defeated SP candidate Girish Chandra by over 15,000 votes while BJP’s Keshav Prasad got 30,391 votes only.