Lucknow, April 17 (UNI) Campaigning for the first phase of Lok Sabha election covering eight constituencies spread over nine districts of western Uttar Pradesh ended on Wednesday evening.
According to UP Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa, polling in these eight constituencies, including Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Nagina, Moradabad, Rampur and Pilibhit will be held on April 19.
"These eight seats are spread over nine districts, including Saharanpur, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Bijnor, Moradabad, Rampur, Pilibhit and Bareilly," he said.
A total of 80 candidates, including 73 male and 7 female, are in the fray in these constituencies. The total 1.43 crore electorates, including 76.23 lakh males and 67.14 lakh females are eligible to cast their votes.
Polling will be held at 14,844 polling stations spread over 7,693 polling centres. It may be noted that the first phase of Lok Sabha polls in UP is crucial for all the political parties, including ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, INDIA alliance of Samajwadi Party (SP), Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
In Saharanpur Lok Sabha seat, Congress candidate Imran Masood is locked in a battle with BJP nominee Raghav Lakhanpal. BSP, which has denied ticket to its sitting MP Haji Fazlur Rehman, is heavily banking on Majid Ali.
Similarly, in Kairana seat sitting BJP MP Pradeep Chaudhary is being challenged by Iqra Hasan of SP and Shripal Rana of BSP. Iqra, who is making debut in electoral politics, is sister of three times MLA Nahid Hasan and daughter of two times MP Tabassum Hasan.
In Pilibhit where BJP has denied ticket to sitting MP Varun Gandhi, the party has fielded PWD Minister in the Yogi Adityanath government and former Union Minister Jitin Prasada. Here the SP has fielded its old loyalist and former minister Bhagwat Saran Gangwar. The BSP has fielded Anis Ahmad Khan in this seat.
In Muzaffarnagar, seat SP has fielded senior leader Harendra Malik against two time BJP MP and Union Minister Sanjeev Kumar Balyan. inn Bijnor seat National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) MLA Chandhan Chauhan is locked in a contest with Deepak Saini of SP and Chaudhary Vijendra Singh of BSP.
An interesting contest is being witnessed in Nagina seat where chief of Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) Chandra Shekhar Azad is posing a serious challenge to BJP's Om Kumar, SP's Manoj Kumar and Surendra Pal Singh of BSP. In 2019, candidate of Mahagatbandhan, comprising SP, BSP and RLD, Girish Chandra emerged victorious from this seat, but this time he was denied ticket by BSP.
In Moradabad seat, SP candidate Ruchi Veera is pitted against Sravesh Kumar Singh of BJP. But it will be difficult for SP candidate after sitting MP HT Hasan distanced himself from the campaigning after being denied ticket by the party.
Rampur will witness first Lok Sabha election in the absence of senior SP leader Mohammad Azam Khan. In 2022 by-election for Rampur seat, BJP breached the bastion of SP probably for the first time after several years when BJP candidate and sitting MP Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi defeated SP's Mohammad Asim Rama, considered to be close to Azam Khan.
This time SP has fielded Mohibullah Nadvi, which has led to confusion among the supporters and well wishers of Azam Khan. Here BSP has given a ticket to a newcomer Zeeshan Khan, who has been associated with the party for more than a decade.
It may be mentioned that almost all the parties, especially BJP, which aims to win all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP, have campaigned extensively in the first phase.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a rally in Moradabad.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had toured almost all the election bound districts twice or thrice seeking support in favour of BJP candidates. Besides, a battery of ministers in the BJP government, including Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya, Brajesh Pathak and state president Bhupendra Singh also campaigned extensively for the first phase of polls in the state.
Though SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav started campaigning a bit late for the party candidates, he held rallies in Nagina (Bijnor) and Moradabad. Prior to this, he also held a rally in Pilibhit. Congress has been the only exception, whose none of the senior leaders held a single rally for the first phase of the election.
AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi held a roadshow in Saharanpur seeking support in favour of Imran Masood on the last day of campaigning on Wednesday.
UNI AB CS1847