Kannauj has welcomed the campaign by all parties equally. Samajwadi Party candidate Dimple Yadav, also sitting MP and wife of CM Akhilesh Yadav, has held well-attended road shows. But even Narendra Modi held a crowded rally at the carefully chosen site of Bharthana in Etawah, which is close to Kannauj. Thus, as the constituency goes to vote on April 24, it’s difficult to say whether Dimple Yadav would sail smoothly. Kannauj is important for the SP, specially the ruling Yadav family. Akhilesh Yadav had won from this city of perfume in 2009 by 1.15 lakh votes, but vacated it in 2012, on becoming chief minister of UP. His wife, Dimple, then won the seat uncontested. The fact that this time she faces a contest has not cast doubts on her victory among SP workers. Their only worry is her “margin of victory”. Nothing below a margin of one lakh votes is acceptable to them. To ensure such victory for Dimple, the SP’s top brass including Mulayam, Akhilesh and Shivpal Yadav, and Jaya Bachchan have campaigned in Kannauj, which has close to 17.72 lakh voters. The SP’s main selling point has been development, reminding voters of projects worth over Rs 450 crore, including medical and engineering colleges, in the constituency, sanctioned by the Akhilesh Yadav government. The crowds have been attentive, but sceptical. Many locals allege that most of the development has gone to the Tirwa assembly segment - but SP leaders blame that on availability of land. “Development has taken place, but a lot is yet desired. We want some package for our perfume industry,” said trader Ahmed Ali. Opposition leaders refute SP’s development talk. “A patient in a critical condition admitted to their much-hyped Kannauj Medical College never returns alive. It has few medicines or doctors”, said BJP candidate Subrat Pathak who lost in 2009 to Akhilesh Yadav from Kannauj. But development is not the only issue in the constituency. The BJP has whipped up the issue of communal tension. In its campaign, it has talked of some six minor clashes that took place under SP’s watch in the rural parts of Kannuaj. The incidents, which happened mostly between Yadavs and Muslims, did not result in deaths but have created a wedge between the two core votebanks of SP. “Communal incidents are regular here, and the government sides with Muslims. It is obviously an election issue,” said Narendra Rajput, district unit president of BJP. The party’s UP incharge Amit Shah held meetings with workers on April 22 during which “he gave us the vijay mantra”, said Rajput. Yadavs and Muslims number over two lakh each in Kannauj but Rajput doesn’t include them in his calculations as “we are confident of our victory”. He includes the Lodhs — Kalyan Singh addressed a rally targeting nearly 2.5 lakh Lodhs — and the nearly 2.5 lakh Brahmins. The Brahmins are also being included by BSP’s candidate Nirmal Tiwari in his poll arithmetic, along with the Dalits. AAP’s Imran Bin Zafar too is in the fray but his campaign has been limited to urban areas.
