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Journalism of Courage
Actress Hema Malini, actor Arun Govil and BSP-turned Congress-leader Danish Ali are among those whose fates are to be decided in polling in Uttar Pradesh in the second phase on Friday.
In the eight UP seats voting on April 26 – Amroha, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Bulandshahr, Aligarh and Mathura – unemployment was a major issue among the youths, with many expressing anger over leaks of papers in various recruitment exams and the lack of jobs. The BJP had won seven of these seats in 2019, with only Amroha going to the BSP-Samajwadi Party-RLD joint candidate, Danish Ali.
While the SP and Congress are allies this time, the RLD is a partner of the BJP. The BSP is fighting alone.
For the first time in the last five decades, no one from former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh’s family is fighting elections from the Baghpat Lok Sabha seat. The RLD has fielded Rajkumar Sangwan, who is facing the SP’s Amarpal Sharma, a former MLA and Brahmin leader. The BSP has made the fight interesting by fielding Gurjar leader Praveen Bainsla.
Like in the first phase, there were three UP seats where the Rajput community expressed its anger openly with the ruling BJP in this phase. As the Samajwadi Party and BSP tried to capitalise on this resentment, the BJP tried to convince the Rajputs through Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s road shows and rallies of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Yogi Adityanath, both from the Rajput community.
Along with this, issues like sugarcane prices and their timely payment, stray animal menace, rising prices and closed factories dominated Meerut, Baghpat, Bulandshahr seats. In Mathura, the cleaning of the Yamuna and development of religious tourism, and setting up of new industries, dominated the conversation.
Along the NCR constituencies of Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar, voters had issues like registry of flats, land acquisition, and delay in getting compensation.
In Amroha, the candidature of Danish Ali, who faced communal slurs from BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri in the outgoing Lok Sabha, attracted direct attacks from both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BSP chief Mayawati. Ali is facing the BSP’s Mujahid Hussain and the BJP’s Kanwar Singh Tanwar, who lost to him in 2019.
Govil, of the TV series Ramayan fame, was given a ticket by the BJP this time over its three-time MP Rajendra Agrawal, months after the Ram Temple consecration ceremony. He is facing the SP’s Sunita Verma, a Dalit, whose ticket was finalised after a lot of fuss, and the BSP’s Devvrat Kumar Tyagi.
The third high-profile candidate is actress Hema Malini, a BJP winner the last two times from Mathura. The Congress has fielded Mukesh Dhangar and given the slogan “Pravasi vs Brajwasi” to underline Dhangar’s son-of-the-soil credentials. The BSP has given a ticket to former IRS official Suresh Singh, a Jat.
In Gautam Buddha Nagar and Ghaziabad, the BJP has tall benchmarks to meet given its winning margins in 2019. The party ran into Kshatriya anger here, over representation, after denying a ticket to General (retd) V K Singh, a Thakur and two-time Ghaziabad MP. While the BJP has fielded Atul Garg, a Vaishya, in Ghaziabad, the BSP candidate is Nand Kishor Pundir, a Thakur, and the Congress’s is Dolly Sharma.
In Gautam Buddha Nagar, former minister and two-times MP Mukesh Sharma is seeking re-election on the BJP ticket, versus the SP’s Dr Mahendra Nagar, a Gurjar, and former MLA Rajendra Solanki of the BSP.
In Bulandshahr, the BJP’s sitting MP Bhola Singh is seeking re-election for the third time. He has the support of the Lodh community. The BSP has fielded Girish Chandra Jatav, the sitting MP from Nagina, and the Congress Shivram Valmiki, hoping to get Dalit votes along with minority and backward castes due to its alliance with the SP.
In Aligarh, there is a three-sided battle between the BJP’s Satish Gautam, the SP’s Bijendra Singh and the BSP’s Hitendra Upadhyay.
