First phase of UP polls to start today

The first phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh, which will be held on Thursday in 58 constituencies spread across 11 districts in the western part of the state, is crucial for the BJP and SP-RLD alliance. While the BJP has played the Hindutva card by raking up the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, the alleged exodus of Hindus from Kairana and minority appeasement by other parties, SP-RLD is banking on the Jat disenchantment with the BJP due to farm laws and the sizable Muslim population in this belt.

Polling will be held in Shamli, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Bhagpat, Mathura, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Agra and Hapur districts. BJP had won 53 of the 58 seats in 2017, while SP and BSP bagged two and RLD one seat respectively.

Since some of these seats have a sizable minority population and the SP-RLD combine is strong on the caste front, the BJP has tried to polarise the election as this had swayed the voters in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the 2017 assembly elections. Other prominent issues in this phase are the sugarcane prices with BJP claiming the Yogi Adityanath government has paid the dues of farmers and opened the sugar mills in this region. The voters, however, are not fully convinced about this claim.





BJP has also raised the Mathura temple issue even as the Ayodhya Ram temple and the Kashi Vishwanath temple area are refurbishing in the background.

This phase, along with the next one on February 14, will test the impact of the farm laws and its repeal. Rakesh Tikait-led BKU, which had participated in the farm laws protest at Delhi borders for more than a year, drew its support from this region.

Local issues like the anger among Gujjars over the demand for naming the Jewar airport after their icon Raja Mihir Bhoj are also likely to affect the polls. Gujjars have been voting for the BJP in the past few elections but with Rajputs, their arch rivals, siding with Yogi Adityanath, they may do a rethink.

The BJP is hopeful of encashing on the legacy of former UP CM Kalyan Singh, who passed away a few months back. His community, the Lodh Rajputs, form a big chunk of the vote bank in some seats of Aligarh, Bulandshahr and Hapur.

Issues related to the Covid second wave when several people died, huge job losses and reverse migration are also important factors.

The prominent candidates in the fray in this phase are ministers Suresh Rana (Thana Bhawan), Srikant Sharma (Mathura) and Kalyan Singh’s grandson Sandeep (Atrauli). Former Uttarakhand Governor Baby Rani Maurya, a Jatav leader, is contesting from Agra Rural seat. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj is fighting to retain the Noida seat.

In Kairana, BJP candidate Mriganka Singh is facing a tough fight against Nahid Hasan (SP) who was jailed recently. Avatar Singh Bhadana, the Gujjar MLA who defected from BJP to SP, is contesting from Jewar while another turncoat Gajraj Singh, who quit the Congress, is the RLD candidate from Hapur.