BJP locked in a direct contest with Samajwadi Party in third phase of election in Uttar Pradesh

With 10 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh going to the polls in the third phase on May 7, campaigning in India’s most populous and electorally crucial State reached a crescendo, with all the political parties hitting top gear.

Sambhal, Hathras, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Budaun, Bareilly, and Aonla vote on the back of a raucous campaign in which top leaders across political parties have rooted for their core and long-standing issues.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath led the BJP’s charge against, what they called, dynasty and appeasement politics of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP), and slammed the Opposition for declining the Ram Temple invitation.

The SP, which has much at stake in this phase, pushed its caste census pitch and alleged that the BJP will end reservation and hence is seeking 400plus seats in the Lok

Sabha.

Of the 10 seats that will vote, the BJP won eight — Hathras, Agra, Firozabad, Fatehpur Sikri, Etah, Badaun, Bareilly and Aonla — in 2019. Mainpuri and Sambhal went to the SP.

In many of the seats in the third phase, the BJP is locked in a direct contest with the SP-led INDIA bloc, with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) aiming to make the contest three-cornered. In Sambhal, which has a sizeable Muslim electorate, the SP’s Zia Ur Rahman Barq is facing the

BJP’s Parmeshwar Lal Saini. Sambhal has remained a tough electoral terrain for the BJP, with the party winning the seat only once.

In Hathras, a Scheduled Caste-reserved constituency, the SP’s Jasveer Valmiki is taking on Anoop Pradhan of the BJP.

This phase will be a test for the SP’s ‰rst family as well, with Dimple Yadav, Akshay Yadav, and Aditya Yadav contesting from Mainpuri, Firozabad, and Budaun, respectively. In Mainpuri, an SP bastion that the party has never lost, sitting MP Ms. Dimple is taking on Jaiveer Singh of the BJP. In Firozabad, BJP candidate Chandra Sen Jadon is contesting against Mr. Akshay.

The campaigning in these seats remained stormy. Mr. Shah questioned SP president Akhilesh Yadav over dynasty politics, wondering whether the Opposition party had failed to ‰nd any ‘Yadav’ candidate from outside the family.

“The SP claims to represent Yadavs. I want to tell you, Mulayam Singhji became the CM, then his son became the CM and after his (Mulayam Singh Yadav) death, the daughter-in-law became the MP. This time Akhileshji is contesting from Kannauj, Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri, Aditya Yadav from Budaun, Akshay Yadav from Firozabad, and Dharmendra Yadav from Azamgarh. My simple question to Akhileshji is don’t you ‰nd other Yadavs outside your family,” he asked, addressing a gathering in Mainpuri.

In the region, which has a sizeable OBC population primarily from the Yadav caste group, the SP president in his speeches continuously pushed the caste census, while attacking the BJP over Mr. Shah’s ‘Yadav’ family statement. Mr. Yadav called the BJP not only the “most dangerous family” in India, but also in the whole world.

“The BJP is not only the most dangerous family of India but of the world. Along with them, there is another dangerous family which wanted to end reservation. Now when they want votes they are saying that reservation will not end,” Mr. Yadav said at a rally in Etah.