2024 LS polls: Candidates in U.P.’s Mohanlalganj go all out on last day of campaign

In predominantly rural Mohanlalganj Lok Sabha (reserved) constituency, all eleven candidates in the fray went at full throttle to reach out to public seeking their votes and support on the last day of campaigning on Saturday for fifth phase of Lok Sabha polls scheduled for Monday (May 20).

Meanwhile, supporters of these candidates approached people during door-to-door campaign in rural areas. Three contenders in Mohanlalganj are two-time sitting MP and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Kaushal Kishore, INDIA bloc candidate of Samajwadi Party (SP) RK Chaudhary and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) pick Rajesh Kumar.

BJP candidate Kaushal Kishore, who is seeking a third term in row from the seat, attended as many as five “nukkad sabhas” and public meetings in Sarojini Nagar and BKT assembly segments. Local BJP MLAs Rajeshwar Singh and Yogesh Shukla from Sarojini Nagar and BKT assemblies respectively sought votes and support for Kaushal Kishore holding early morning nukkad sabhas and late-night meetings.

Kishore thereafter visited four villages of his native assembly segment Malihabad from where his wife Jai Devi is the sitting MLA. “We mainly tried to woo voters of urban and upper caste voters (16.6%) including Brahmins (8.3%), Kshatriyas (7.3%) and Kayasthas (1%) as well as rural voters of other backward castes like Lodh (5.3%), Kurmi (3.1%) Gadariya, Kachi and Kahar (2.2%) and other castes (8.9%). Besides, we focused on Pasi voters who dominate the constituency with around 21 percent share,” said one BJP supporter Ankit Maurya who accompanied Kishore.

RK Chaudhary mainly focused on farmers and Dalit communities of Mohanlalganj and Siddhauli assembly segments which according to his supporters remained untouched by his main opponent Kaushal Kishore.

He approached several farmer unions and organisations active in these two completely rural assembly segments. A local farmers’ union office bearer Umesh Yadav and an SP supporter accompanied him when he reached out to Yadav and Muslim communities which are around 11 and 14.2 percent of the total voters. “Other than this, our focus was on Dalit voters comprising 21 percent Pasi and 14.5 percent Jatav voters,” Yadav said.

“We also approached Lodhi, Kurmi, Gadariya, Kachi and Kahar communities who are basically into farming,” he added. RK Chaudhary and his supporters sought votes by highlighting “wrong decisions of the BJP government.”

Mohanlalganj along with Lucknow and 12 other Lok Sabha constituencies of central and north U.P. will go to the polls in the fifth phase. This Lok Sabha constituency comprises four assembly segments of rural, semi-urban and urban Malihabad, Mohanlalganj, Sarojini Nagar and Bakshi Ka Talab (BKT) as well as one rural assembly Siddhauli segment of Sitapur district.