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Voting in UP’s Samajwadi bastions, Uttarakhand, Goa today: 10 points

February 14, 2022
Bharat Times

The competition in Goa has attracted the most attention after Uttar Pradesh.

New Delhi:
Voting is being held today in 55 constituencies spread across nine districts of Uttar Pradesh, amid an increasingly intense, polarized campaign. Voting in two other BJP-ruled states of Goa and Uttarakhand will also begin at 7 am.

Here are the top 10 points of this big story:

  1. In Uttar Pradesh, special attention will be given to eight sensitive constituencies in Bijnor, Sambhal and Saharanpur districts. There is a sizeable Muslim population in the areas considered to be strongholds of the Samajwadi Party.

  2. Goa and Uttarakhand will go to polls in one phase. Voting is going on for 40 seats in Goa and 70 in the hill state.

  3. In 2017, out of 55 seats in Uttar Pradesh, BJP won 38 seats, Samajwadi Party 15 and Congress 2 seats.

  4. Prominent faces contesting in this phase include senior Samajwadi Party leaders Azam Khan, Dharam Singh Saini, BJP minister in Samajwadi Party and state finance minister Suresh Khanna.

  5. Azam Khan has been fielded from his stronghold Rampur and is contesting from behind bars. His son Abdullah Azam is contesting against Haider Ali Khan from Soor seat. Haider Ali Khan, a member of the erstwhile royal family of Rampur, is the grandson of former MP Noor Bano, who is trying his luck on the ticket of BJP’s ally Apna Dal (Sonelal). He is the only Muslim candidate so far announced by the BJP-led coalition in UP.

  6. Prominent candidates in Uttarakhand include Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and his cabinet colleagues Satpal Maharaj, Subodh Uniyal, Arvind Pandey and Dhan Singh Rawat. Prominent Congress faces include former chief minister Harish Rawat and state Congress chief Ganesh Godiyal. Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party is also contesting from Uttarakhand.

  7. However, the competition in Goa, a small seaside state with only 40 seats, has attracted the most attention after UP, with a surprising result in 2017, when the Congress won the most seats, but the BJP formed the government. This time around, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party and Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress are also in the fray, with hopes of expanding their footprint beyond Delhi and Bengal.

  8. The big fight will be in Panaji, where BJP rebel and late Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal Parrikar is contesting as an independent against BJP’s Atanasio Monserrate. The Congress has fielded former bureaucrat and AAP’s chief ministerial candidate Elvis Gomes in 2017. AAP has fielded Valmiki Naik for the third time.

  9. The Trinamool Congress is aggressively recruiting in Goa – expanding it mostly at the expense of the Congress. However, this election is being held amid growing rift with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee and old leaders. Caught in the middle is the IPAC of election strategist Prashant Kishor, who is campaigning in Goa.

  10. The Aam Aadmi Party, which suffered defeat in the 2017 elections in Goa, claims that they are well prepared this time. Given the history of rapid defection in the state, all 40 AAP candidates have signed a loyalty affidavit, which can be legally enforced by any voter.

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