Meerut, Mathura and Amroha among key seats to watch out for in phase 2 of Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha polls
Lok Sabha elections phase 2 in Uttar Pradesh: Mayawati targets Rajput discontent in Ghaziabad, BJP, BSP, and Congress in tight race in Amroha.
Eight Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh went to polls in the first phase of elections and as many seats are scheduled to undergo polling in the second phase on April 26. While the 2019 Lok Sabha elections were largely bipolar with Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) contesting together, the stage is set for a three-cornered contest this year after Mayawati decided to go alone.
A total of 91 candidates are in fray for the second phase of Lok Sabha elections covering Amroha, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Aligarh, Mathura, and Bulandshahr seats in Uttar Pradesh.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who kicked off a huge political firestorm with controversial speech in Rajasthan’s Banswara, repeated the allegations in his rallies that the Congress was planning to redistribute the people's property if it is voted to power. However, in Aligarh, a constituency with a sizeable Muslim population, stopped short of saying that the wealth would go to Muslims.
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Here are the key Lok Sabha seats in UP to watch out for in the second phase:
Amroha
In 2019, the BJP won seven out of eight seats going to polls in the second phase, with BSP bagging Amroha seat. BSP’s winning candidate, Danish Ali, is now in the poll fray on a Congress ticket after Mayawati suspended him for “anti-party activities”. The BSP has fielded Mujahid Hussain from Amroha to take on Danish Ali and BJP’s Kanwar Singh Tanwar, who won the seat in 2014. In the 2019 elections, Danish Ali got 6,01,082 votes while BJP's Kanwar Singh Tanwar got 5,37,834 votes.
Meerut
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has replaced three-time MP Rajendra Agarwal with actor Arun Govil, who played Lord Ram in popular TV serial ‘Ramayan’. The BJP sailed through in 2019 with a narrow margin of 5,000 votes against Yaqoob Qureshi of SP-BSP-RLD alliance. This time, both Akhilesh and Mayawati have gone with Hindu candidates in a seat where Muslims constitute 36 per cent of the population. Sunita Verma of Samajwadi Party and Devvrat Kumar Tyagi of the BSP will challenge Arun Govil in the Meerut seat.
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Mathura
The BJP has fielded two-time sitting MP Hema Malini from Mathura Lok Sabha constituency. The actor-turned-politician faces challenge from OBC leader Mukesh Dhangar of the Congress, representing the opposition INDIA bloc, and Chaudhary Suresh Singh of the BSP. While the BJP is banking on the performance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chief minister Yogi Adityanath, and the star power of Hema Malini, the Congress is seeking votes in the name of change. In 2014, Hema Malini defeated Rashtriya Lok Dal leader and sitting MP Jayant Chaudhary, who has joined hands with the BJP this time. BSP's Chaudhary Suresh Singh, a veteran Jat leader who was earlier with the BJP, is eyeing the section of his community unhappy with Jayant Chaudhary’s decision to align with the BJP. Among the 19.30 lakh voters in Mathura, the Jat community is the most influential with around 5 lakh votes, followed by Rajputs and Brahmins (approximately 3 lakh each), Jatavs (2 lakh), Muslims (1.6 lakh) and OBCs.
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Ghaziabad
To cash in on the resentment among Rajput community against the BJP, Mayawati has fielded Nandkishore Pundhir from Ghaziabad, a seat currently represented by BJP’s General VK Singh (retd), who was replaced with Atul Garg for 2024 elections. The Congress has fielded Dolly Sharma from the seat. During a major election rally in Ghaziabad, Mayawati pointed out that discontent is prevailing in western UP among the Kshatriyas against the BJP. After Muslims and Dalits, Rajputs (Kshatriyas) are the single largest community across western UP, especially concentrated in Ghaziabad, Saharanpur, Meerut, Kairana, Gautam Budh Nagar, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat and Aligarh, among others. Congress leaders in Ghaziabad have also drawn out their caste-based estimates and are hoping to get about 80% of Brahmin votes, and about 70-80% of Muslim votes.
