Many civic issues ail this BJP bastion
Opposition parties are trying hard to make inroad into the Allahabad South assembly seat which is considered a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stronghold. Out of the last eight elections, BJP candidates have won six times here.
Pt Keshari Nath Tripathi, former West Bengal Governor and former UP assembly speaker, won the assembly polls for five consecutive times from this seat between 1989 and 2002. However, in 2007 elections, Nand Gopal Gupta “Nandi”, at the time the new face of the BSP, won this seat by defeating Tripathi and Rita Bahuguna Joshi of the Congress.
Samajwadi Party’s Haji Parvez Ahmad Tanki beat Nandi by a slender margin of just 414 votes to get elected but Nandi made a comeback on the seat in the 2017 polls contesting on a BJP ticket and defeating Tanki by 28,587 votes and is yet again contesting from here this time.
Development issues: Having 4,02,635 voters and dominated by Brahmins, Baniyas and Muslims, the Allahabad South seat has Naini Industrial area under which it has witnessed gradual closure of industries and manufacturing units over the past years and despite efforts of Nand Gopal Gupta “Nandi”, who is a cabinet minister in the UP government, as well as the BJP MP Rota Bahuguna Joshi, nothing much has changed during the past five years. Many localities here still suffer from age-old problems of poor-quality potable water supply, poor roads besides poor waste management system. Localities like Meerapur, Attarsuiya, Malakraj, Kharkauni and parts of Kareli especially need a systematic revamp of roads connecting the main localities with one another. Promises like making power cables fully underground, constructing a two-storey underground parking in the basement of Moti Park with musical fountain and food court on the top so as to make it a mini-version of Delhi’s Connaught Place are still to take shape. Even the promised beautification of the area from Lalita Devi temple to Bargad Ghat
Allahabad South Prayagraj February 27
Nand Gopal Gupta “Nandi” (BJP)
Haji Parvez Ahmad Tanki (SP)
28,587 votes 2017 Election Winner: BJP Runner-up :SP 2012 Election Winner: SP Runner-up: BSP 2007 Election Winner: BSP Runner-up: BJP
Hanuman temple as part of efforts to promote religious tourism are still unfulfilled. K Sandeep Kumar