Polling for the second phase has started in Uttar Pradesh, in which voting is to be held in 55 seats. Of these, the BJP won 38 seats in 2017, while the Samajwadi Party got 15 and the Congress two. The SP and the Congress had fought the last assembly elections in alliance. The polling areas in this phase have a large Muslim population influenced by religious leaders of the Barelvi and Deoband sects and are considered a stronghold of the Samajwadi Party.
Prominent faces in the fray in this phase include BJP’s state minister Dharam Singh Saini, who had switched to the SP. SP’s Azam Khan has been fielded from his stronghold Rampur seat, while Saini is trying his luck from Nakud assembly constituency. Khan is a member of the Lok Sabha from Rampur. Khan’s son Abdullah Azam has been given ticket from Sur seat. He is pitted against Haider Ali Khan, the heiress of another political family, the Nawabs of Rampur, who are trying their luck on the ticket of BJP’s ally Apna Dal (Sonelal). Outgoing Minister of State for Jal Shakti Baldev Singh Aulakh is contesting from Bilaspur, Minister of State for Urban Development Mahesh Chandra Gupta from Badaun and Minister of State for Secondary Education Gulab Devi from Chandausi.
Here are some of the interesting battles of Phase-2:
Rampur
SP veteran Azam Khan clashes with his ‘nemesis’ Akash Saxena (BJP). Saxena registered 30 out of 100 land-grabbing cases against Azam, which resulted in his arrest. Rampur MP Azam is requesting a record 10th sentence in jail. Nawab Kazim Ali of the Congress party, a descendant of the local royal family and four-time legislators from two adjacent seats, makes it a three-way race. While there is a history of discord between Rampur royalty and Azam, Akash, son of former minister Shiv Bahadur, fought with the SP veteran for a long time.
Chandausi
Minister of State for Secondary Education Gulab Devi has been nominated by the BJP from Chandausi seat. She has served in the Legislature four times. She is contesting against Vimlesh Kumari of Akhilesh Yadav’s party, who had finished second as a Congress candidate last time. This time Congress has fielded Mithilesh Kumari from this seat, while BSP will be represented by Ran Vijay Singh as part of its ‘Ladki Hoon, Balak Shakti Hoon’ campaign.
suaro
With the conflict between the sons of Azam Khan and Kazim Ali, the battle of Rampur spread to neighboring Boar. Azam’s son Abdullah, who won the seat in 2017 but was later disqualified for using a forged birth certificate, is up against Kazim’s son Haider Ali Khan, a youth educated in England, Who had turned down Congress ticket to become the candidate of NDA’s partner Apna. According to a report by the party(s), times of India, As a result, he is the first Muslim candidate of the BJP and its allies since 2014. Abdullah had defeated Haider’s father in 2017 who had filed a ‘fake certificate’ case against him. As a result, it is a serious match for both.
Badaun
BJP has fielded Minister of State Mahesh Chandra Gupta from Badaun seat. The Samajwadi Party dropped its most powerful Muslim figure in the district, Abid Raza (who represented the seat from 2012 to 2017), to make way for Raees Ahmed, a real-estate magnate from Mumbai. BSP’s Rajesh Kumar Singh and Congress’s Rajni Singh are the other candidates.
nakuro
Two turncoats are face to face in this electoral battle. Two-time MP and former minister Dharam Singh Saini joined the SP just before the elections. Mukesh Chaudhary of BJP was a member of Congress till 2019, when he joined BJP. Saini, on the other hand, has his arch rival Imran Masood. Former Congress leader Masood was defeated by Saini in two elections and joined the SP. Despite not getting the ticket, he has resolved to win the SP. BSP’s Sahil Khan is hoping to make inroads into SP’s Muslim vote bank. Sonu Kumar has been fielded by Chandrashekhar’s Azad Samaj Party, which has a presence in the district.
Shahjahanpur
Uttar Pradesh Finance Minister Suresh Khanna is in a race for a record ninth victory in the seat, which he has held since 1989. SP district president Tanveer Khan, who was in a close race against Khanna in the last two elections, is back. Relying on Muslim voters to challenge him, the report said. While BSP has played the Brahmin card by fielding Dhandhu Mishra, Congress has surprised everyone by fielding Asha worker Poonam Pandey. He took center stage after he was attacked by the police while trying to enter the UP CM’s rally venue.
Bilaspur
After a year-long agrarian protest, Baldev Singh Aulakh, the lone Sikh minister in the Yogi cabinet and sitting MLA, is facing an uphill battle to win over voters, especially Sikhs, who are in large numbers here. His rival is Congress veteran Sanjay Kapoor, who had previously held the seat in 2012 and 2007. A large number of families who have moved from Punjab to settle in this constituency of Rampur district, it is one of the few seats where the impact of agrarian opposition can be felt. Amarjit Singh is the SP candidate, while Ram Avtar Kashyap is the BSP candidate.
better
Before the delimitation of 2008, constituency number 1 of UP was known as Muzaffarabad. MLA Naresh Saini, one of the seven Congress candidates elected in 2017, is now a BJP candidate. In fact, in Saharanpur district, which includes this seat, there was a lot of churning among the candidates before the elections. SP’s Umar Ali and BSP’s Rais Malik will compete for the support of the constituency’s large Muslim electorate, which may benefit Saini. The BSP is also expected to benefit from the presence of Dalits, especially Jatavs. Poonam Kamboj has been nominated by the Congress party.
Chandausi (R)
A junior minister from Uttar Pradesh, Gulab Devi, had to compete with other candidates from her own party after she announced her candidature for the reserved seat in Sambhal. She is a four-time MLA, first elected in 1991. After 2002, they suffered two defeats before clinching the title in 2017. Congress’s previous runner-up Vimlesh Kumari is now SP’s candidate. The SP had helped him for the last time. Congress has also fielded a woman Mithilesh Kumari, while BSP has fielded Ran Vijay Singh. The BJP candidate is also against this seat’s history of shifting winning parties.
Gooseberry
Former minister Dharampal Singh is contesting for the fifth time from this seat in Bareilly district. He was appointed Irrigation Minister in the Yogi government in 2017 but resigned before the end of his term. He is up against a former ‘ally’, Radha Krishna Sharma, a BJP MLA from neighboring Bilsi, who has switched to the SP. Sharma is a two-time MLA. Known for IFFCO’s fertilizer unit and considered a saffron bastion, the BJP has lost only two elections in the last 36 years. Lodhs are the most dominant caste here, so BSP has fielded Laxman Prasad Lodhi and Congress has fielded Omvir Yadav.
amroha
Former cabinet minister Mehboob Ali has been in the post since 2002 and is running for a fifth term. In 2017, he won by over 15,000 votes, despite the fact that the BJP won the remaining three seats in Amroha district. This time, he had an advantage when Congress candidate Salim Khan joined the SP just two days before the elections, claiming that he was not allowed to meet Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, as per reports. In light of the large number of minority votes, the BSP has also fielded a Muslim candidate, Naved Ayaz. The BJP has fielded Ram Singh Saini, who last won in 1991.
oilseeds
It’s another battle of turncoats here. BJP’s Roshan Lal Verma, who demolished Congress’s Jitin Prasada in 2017, is now the SP candidate, who has had high-profile crossovers with Swami Prasad Maurya and others. He had won the seat in 2012 as a BSP candidate. Verma is up against BJP’s Saloni Kushwaha, an SP worker who quickly switched parties after snatching her ticket. While she hopes to benefit from the goodwill of her doctor husband, BSP candidate Faizan Ali may dent the SP’s Muslim votebank.
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