After three decades, the BJP is going to face a Muslim candidate from any prominent party in Gorakhpur Urban as the BSP announced party worker Khwaza Shamsuddin Saturday as its candidate for the seat, against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Shamsuddin (42) is a government contractor who has been a BSP functionary for 20 years. He is currently the party's chief sector in-charge for Gorakhpur division. This will be his first Assembly election. “Only the BSP is in contest against the BJP. This is going to be a bipolar election because locals are against the Samajwadi Party, which is planning to field a Brahmin candidate from BJP background. I am a local person,” Shamsuddin told The Sunday Express. While the task before him seems impossible, Shamsuddin said he is counting on the substantial Muslim and Dalit vote in the constituency to back him, apart from some Brahmin voters. The BSP has been wooing the Brahmin community through prabudhha varg sammelans led by its national general secretary S C Misra. Gorakhpur Urban seat has been a stronghold of the BJP for over three decades. In 1989, 1991, 1993 and 1996, the winner was the BJP’s Shiv Pratap Shukla. In 2002, he was defeated by Radha Mohan Das Agrawal, a candidate of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, who was backed by Adityanath. Agrawal has held the seat since. Adityanath, who has replaced him as the BJP candidate, will be fighting his first Assembly election. While in 2017, the seat saw 24 contestants, and in 2012, 16, none was Muslim. In earlier elections, when unknown parties fielded Muslim candidates, no one got more than 3,000 votes. In fact, the last time a Muslim candidate did well here was on a BSP ticket when, in 1993, its Jafar Ali Jippu finished third, getting 14% of the votes. Apart from Adityanath and Shamsuddin, in the fray this time is Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) chief Chandrashekhar. He toured the constituency for a couple of days last month. The BSP announced candidates for 54 seats on Saturday, across 10 districts in eastern UP which will go to polls in the sixth phase. Of the 54 candidates, at least 14 are OBCs, followed by 11 Brahmins, 11 Scheduled Castes and seven Muslims. In Katehri seat in Ambedkarnagar district, the BSP has given ticket to Prateek Pandey, the cousin of local party MP Ritesh Pandey. His father Rakesh Pandey is the SP candidate from Jalalpur in current elections. Prateek's father Pawan Kumar Pandey is a former Shiv Sena MLA from Akbarpur. Veteran BSP leader Lalji Verma had won from Katehri in 2017, but he joined the SP last year. He is contesting from Katehri on SP ticket.
