Lucknow: Out of the eight seats going to polls in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, the Mahagathbandhan (MGB) might wrest three from the BJP if voting pattern in the 2014 is any indication.
The Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) are contesting unitedly as the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ in 2019. They had fought separately in 2014. If the votes polled by these parties in 2014 are added, the BJP would have lost Fatehpur Sikri, Nagina and Amroha but would have won Hathras, Mathura, Bulandshahar, Aligarh and Agra.
On the five seats where the BJP appears strong despite Mahagathbandhan, the party has changed candidates on three seats. In Hathras reserved seat, Rajvir Diler Balmiki has replaced Rajesh Kumar Diwakar, the winner of last election. In 2014, Diwaker had faced Niranjan Singh Dhangar of RLD, Manoj Kumar Soni of BSP and Ramji Lal Suman of SP. Even if the votes of all his rivals are added, Diwaker still would have emerged the winner comfortably.
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While the Mahagathbandhan appears strong to win back some seats from the BJP, the additional factor in these elections is the Congress and Shivpal Yadav’s Progressive Democratic Alliance (PDA) fielding their own candidates. From Hathras, the Congress-led UPA has Triloki Ram as the contestant and PDA has Mithlesh Devi.
The BJP has changed candidate in Agra as well, where Satya Pal Singh Baghel is leading the party’s charge against Mahagathbandhan’s Manoj Kumar Soni, UPA’s Preeta Harit and Ramji Lal Vidyarthi of PDA. In 2014, Dr. Ram Shankar Katheria had comprehensively beaten all his rivals who would not have matched his numbers even if they had fought together.
In Mathura, the BJP has retained Hema Malini, who had defeated Jayant Chaudhary of RLD, Pt. Yogesh Kumar Dwivedi of BSP and Chandan Singh of SP in 2014 is facing Kunwar Narinder Singh of Mahagathbandhan, Mahesh Pathak of UPA and Jagvir Singh of PDA. Constituency-wise analysis of votes polled by main candidates in 2014 on the Uttar Pradesh seats going to polls on April 18.
