This round,BSP,SP on the sidelines

But unlike the two national parties,the SP and the BSP have a strong presence across board,with the exception of Rae Bareli and Kanpur. In Rae Bareli,Congress president Sonia Gandhi is assured of victory,while in Kanpur MoS for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal is fighting for a third consecutive term.

Unlike the first two phases,many of the constituencies in the third phase have urban areas where the national parties have traditionally been stronger than the SP and the BSP. This,plus the weakening of the support base of both the SP and BSP,has created greater room for the Congress and the BJP. If the SP is facing the problem of Muslim alienation because of Mulayam Singhs friendship with Kalyan Singh,many voters are unhappy with the BSP over its track record in government.

Perhaps that was the reason why campaigning for the third phase saw the Congress taking an aggressive line against the BSP and SP. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi personally led the attack,describing the SP fickle-minded and the BSP Government an elephant that ate up all assistance that the Centre gave for the welfare of the poor.

BSP chief Mayawati,on the other hand,was repeatedly seeking votes to make the Dalit ki beti,who is from their own state,the countrys prime minister. In 2004,the BSP had won six seats,namely Sitapur,Misrikh,Unnao,Fatehpur,Barabanki and Bilhore (now Akbarpur after delimitation). For the BSP,it is a test of whether its Dalit-Brahmin combination still holds and will help increase its tally in the face of the fresh challenges from the Congress and the BJP.

On the other hand,the SP will want to find out whether it was right in dictating terms to the Congress. In 2004,the SP had won five seats.

For the first time since 1991,former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is not contesting from Lucknow. In his place,the BJP has fielded Lalji Tandon,who is locked in a triangular fight with BSPs Akhilesh Das and Congresss Rita Bahuguna Joshi.