Lucknow: In the third phase of Uttar Pradesh Elections voting will be held for 59 assembly seats in 16 districts. The fate of 627 candidates will be decided in the third phase.
Voting will start at 7 am and will go on till 6 pm. The districts where polling will be held include Hathras, Firozabad, Etah, Kasganj, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Etawah, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Kanpur Nagar, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Hamirpur and Mahoba.
The region going to vote in the third phase of elections is considered a stronghold of the Samajwadi Party, but last time BJP performed well here. In the 2017 elections, the BJP won 49 out of 59 seats, while the SP was reduced to nine. Congress got one seat and Bahujan Samaj Party could not win even a single seat.
Lat’s have a look at candidates:
AKHILESH YADAV
The Karhal assembly seat, from where Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is contesting, will also go to polls in the third phase on Sunday.
BJP has fielded Union Minister SP Singh Baghel from this seat. The BJP had demanded from the Election Commission the deployment of paramilitary forces at all booths in Karhal.
Karhal is also a seat adjacent to Akhilesh Yadav’s family village Saifai. Karhal comes in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, from where Mulayam Singh is the current MP.
It was from Karhal that Mulayam Singh completed his schooling and got a job as a teacher. In such a situation, this seat is considered very important in the third phase of elections.
SP BAGHEL
BJP has fielded SP Baghel from Karhal seat against SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav. SP Baghel is the Union Minister of State for Law.
Earlier Baghel was with Samajwadi Party, then was with BSP, and has now joined BJP.
Experts tracking the politics of Uttar Pradesh say that the arrival of SP Baghel can affect the social and caste equation of Karhal and surrounding seats.
Now it remains to be seen how successful SP Singh Baghel is in besieging Akhilesh Yadav.
SHIVPAL YADAV
Sunday’s voting will also seal the fate of Samajwadi Party chief’s uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav, who is contesting from his traditional Jaswant Nagar seat.
Most of the times Mulayam Singh’s clan has been occupied by Jaswant Nagar seat of Etawah district. Congress had won here only once in 1980. Since 1996, Mulayam Singh’s brother and Akhilesh Yadav’s uncle Shivpal continued to be elected MLA from here.
BJP has fielded Vivek Shakya in front of Shivpal Yadav.
SATISH MAHANA
Cabinet Minister Satish Mahana is contesting from Maharajpur in Kanpur.
Satish Mahana, who has been an MLA for seven consecutive terms, has been feeding lotus in Kanpur for the last 32 years.
He was MLA from Muslim-dominated Cantt seat for five consecutive terms and won twice from Maharajpur assembly seat.
Congress has fielded Youth Congress state president Kanishk Pandey against him. Kanishk Pandey is considered close to Priyanka Gandhi.
The Samajwadi Party has fielded Fateh Bahadur Gill to compete with him. At the same time, BSP is trying to play the OBC card here. BSP has fielded Surendra Pal.
This time the election battle looks more interesting here.
ASIM ARUN
Asim Arun is fighting on BJP ticket from Kannauj Sadar seat.
Apart from being a former police officer, Asim Arun is also from the Dalit community.
BJP is also trying to give a new direction to its politics related to Dalits by fielding a police officer in the midst of corruption-related raids on businessmen here just before the elections.
Here Asim Arun is competing with Anil Dohra, who was SP MLA for three consecutive times.
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