TOUGH FIGHTS

2014 Lok Sabha polls

Kannauj: Dimple Yadav of SP defeats BJP’s Subrat Pathak by 19,907 votes

Rampur: Nepal Singh of BJP defeats SP’s Naseer Ahmad Ali Khan by 23,435 votes

(2.5%)

Sambhal: Satyapal Singh Saini of BJP defeats SP’s Shafiq -Ur-Rahman Barq by 5174 votes (0.5%)

2019 Lok Sabha polls

Budaun: Sanghmitra Maurya of BJP win by 18,454 votes

(1.7%)

Ballia: Virendra Singh of BJP wins by 15,519 votes

Basti: Harish Dwivedi of BJP wins by 30,354 votes winning margin came down to a few thousand on these seats. The Shravasti and Saharanpur Lok Sabha seats went to the BSP.

In Machhlishahr, the BJP’s Bholanath won by a wafer thin margin of 181 votes.

In Meerut, the BJP’s victory margin came down to 4,729 votes and in Shravasti, it was 5,320 votes.

(1.3%)

Firozabad: Chandra Sen Jadaun of BJP wins by 28,781 votes (2.7%)

Machhlishahr: Bholanath of BJP wins by 181 votes

Meerut: Rajendra Agarwal of BJP wins by 4,729 votes

(0.4%)

Saharanpur: Haji Fazlur Rehman of BSP wins by 22,417 votes (1.8%)

Shravasti: Ram Shiromani of BSP wins by 5,320 votes

(0.5%)

Sultanpur: Maneka Gandhi of BJP wins by 14,526 votes (1.5%)

“The SP and BSP Mahagathbandhan had played a crucial role in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. It gave a tough fight to the BJP on 10 seats. There is no such formidable alliance in this election,” said Dr Prashant Trivedi, associate prof, Giri Institute of Development Studies.

The Opposition alliance won 15 seats, the SP five and the BSP

10 in 2019. One seat went to the Congress.

The BJP has given the slogan ‘Abki baar 400 paar’ (this time 400 plus seats) in this election and to make this possible, Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, will be key.

This time, the INDIA bloc alliance, mainly the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, will take on the BJP. Out of 80 seats,

Congress will be contesting 17 and SP on 62 seats. From its share, the SP has given the Bhadohi seat to the Trinamool Congress

“How successful the INDIA bloc will be in stopping the BJP in Uttar Pradesh remains to be seen. The SP and Congress alliance will no doubt consolidate Muslim votes in their favour. But will the INDIA bloc have the same impact on voters as the Mahagathbandhan of SP and BSP had in 2019 polls?” said a political analyst.

Trivedi said the Mahagathbandhan alliance of the SP and BSP was more broad-based as it comprise OBC and Scheduled Caste voters.

However, it was only confined to Uttar Pradesh whereas the INDIA bloc alliance is at the national level, he said.