The contrast between two high-profile Uttar Pradesh Assembly constituencies, Karhal and Gorakhpur Urban, is stark. In Karhal, Mainpuri district, the Samajwadi Party (SP) president and SP-led alliance’s CM face, Akhilesh Yadav, is locked in a triangular fight. In fact, with only three candidates, Karhal has been marked as the seat with the lowest number of candidates in this UP election so far. On the other hand, in Gorakhpur Urban, from where Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is contesting as the BJP nominee, there are 13 candidates in all. Both Adityanath, current MLC (Member of the Legislative Council) and former five-time MP, and Akhilesh, a four-time MP and ex-MLC, are making their debuts in the Assembly polls. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati is its undeclared CM face but she is not contesting the Assembly polls, planning to take the MLC route if her party comes to power. Another player, the Congress , has formally not declared its CM candidate. Karhal is slated for voting on February 20 in the third phase of UP polls, and Gorakhpur Urban in the sixth phase on March 3. Karhal has witnessed a high-voltage campaign in recent days. Akhilesh’s principal challenger seems to be the BJP candidate and Union minister, SP Singh Baghel, Agra MP, with the BSP nominee Kuldip Narayan being the third candidate. While Karhal is a general seat, Baghel and Narayan belong to the Scheduled Castes (SCs). There are about 1.40 lakh Yadav voters in Karhal, with Shakyas (also OBC) accounting for around 60,000 voters, Brahmins and Thakurs 25,000 each, Dalits 40,000 and Muslims 15,000. Karhal is an SP bastion with Akhilesh remaining the front-runner, but the BJP is hoping that if non-Yadav OBCs, upper castes and Dalits vote together for the saffron party, it could be an open game. The sitting SP candidate, Sobaran Singh Yadav, has been winning this seat for the party since 2007. He had also won it on the BJP ticket in 2002. The Congress refrained from fielding its candidate against Akhilesh as a “political courtesy”. In Gorakhpur Urban, following the rejection of 10 nominations during the scrutiny, 13 candidates have remained in the fray. The SP has fielded Subhawati Shukla, wife of late BJP leader Upendra Dutt Shukla, with the Congress nominating Chetna Pandey. Both Chetna and Subhawati are Brahmins, fielded given the perceived “Brahmins versus Thakurs” sentiment in the Gorakhpur region. Adityanath is a Thakur and his government has faced allegations from the Opposition of being allegedly biased against Brahmins. The BSP has pitched a Muslim candidate Khwaja Shamsuddin against Adityanath. Bhim Army leader Chandrashekhar is also contesting the election here as a candidate of his Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshiram). The AAP too has nominated its candidate in Gorakhpur Urban, which has been a BJP stronghold for over three decades. Other contestants include 3 Independents and 4 candidates from little-known parties. The BPM has not fielded any candidate though. In Gorakhpur Urban, there are around 50,000 voters each from the Muslim and Dalit communities, while Brahmins are around 18,000. Thakurs, OBCs, and Vashya are in sizeable numbers.
