Spotlight on personalities in UP’s fourth phase

Lucknow, April 24 (IANS) The fourth phase of elections in Uttar Pradesh will focus more on political personalities than on parties in the 13 Lok Sabha seats where polling will be held on April 29.

The 13 seats are Kannauj, Shahjahanpur, Lakhimpur, Hardoi, Misrikh, Unnao, Farukkhabad, Etawah, Kanpur, Akbarpur, Jalaun, Jhansi and Hamirpur.

Among these Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Misrikh, Etawah and Jalaun are reserved seats. For the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the five reserved seats provide a major challenge since the BSP has been losing on reserved seats over the years.

In 2014, the BJP had won all seats, barring Kannauj, where Dimple Yadav had won on a Samajwadi ticket, albeit with a slender margin.

Dimple Yadav now faces the challenge of retaining her seat in face of the tough challenge posed to her by BJP candidate Subrat Pathak. If Dimple Yadav manages to retain the seat for her party for the eight consecutive times, she will have a lot to thank the BSP for her win.

In Farukkhabad, it is former union Minister Salman Khurshid who is battling to make a comeback into centre stage politics. After his defeat in 2014, Khurshid has been keeping a low profile and his supporters want to see him back in action.

After denying Murli Manohar Joshi the ticket, the BJP is facing a tough challenge in Kanpur. Uttar Pradesh Minister Satyadev Pachauri, contesting the seat, is facing resistance from party cadres, making the electoral battle easier for Congress candidate and former union Minister Shri Prakash Jaiswal.

In Etawah, the BJP has fielded its MP from Agra, Ram Shankar Katehria. This has again left the cadres upset. The denial of ticket to sitting MP Ashok Dohre, who is now the Congress candidate on the same seat, is another factor that is troubling the BJP.

Ashok Dohre says: "I am thankful to the Congress and the results will prove that the scales have tilted in my favour."

In Unnao, BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj, known for his controversial remarks, is seeking re-election but Annu Tandon of Congress is giving him a run for his votes.

Sakshi Maharaj, however, is boisterously over-confident and says, "Every person with a conscience and a golden heart will vote for me. I am going to get elected with a record margin this time."

In Shahjahanpur, the BJP has denied ticket to its union minister Krishna Raj and replaced her with Arun Sagar that has made party workers recede into their homes.

This phase, in fact, is rather troublesome for the BJP since it has changed six of the 12 candidates, causing ripples of discontent among its cadres.