Positioning himself as the opposition candidate for Prime Minister, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has hinted at contesting the 2024 parliament elections from Uttar Pradesh. The number one opposition party in UP, Samajwadi Party too has given positive signals for it. The leaders of SP have already started buzz with slogans like…. "UP Plus Bihar, Gayee Modi Sarkar" (With UP & Bihar together, Modi Government would be ousted). A big hoarding displaying this slogan could be witnessed at the gate of Samajwadi Party headquarters in Lucknow.
While the political parties have been gearing up for the 2024 parliament elections, an exercise for the formation of non-congress opposition too has been initiated with Nitish Kumar at the centre of it. SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav too is upbeat about the third front and he has made it clear that there would be no alliance with Congress or Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in UP for the parliament elections of 2024. Instead, he is looking for the possibility of a third front where parties like Janta Dal United and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) could come together and pose a challenge to the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP). His idea is backed by Bihar CM Nitish Kumar , who also has intended to contest from UP in 2024.
The state unit of JDU has already passed a resolution for Nitish Kumar to contest from either Phoolpur, Mirzapur or Ambedkar Nagar parliament seat. On all these three seats, Kurmi voters are in good numbers, a caste to which Nitish Kumar belonged.
According to JDU leaders in UP, a gain in the number of opposition seats in UP might put a break on the winning spree of Modi and the BJP. In UP, there are 80 parliamentary seats of which BJP has 62 and 2 with its ally Apna Dal.
According to SP leaders, the Phoolpur parliament seat would be the best option for Nitish Kumar and it would send a positive signal among the voters of the entire state of UP. For the JDU too, Phoolpur seat is the most suited with a large number of Yadav and Kurmi voters coupled with minority votes.
According to senior journalist and political analyst TB Singh, the Yadav and Kurmi voters are 2.5 lakh each in the Phoolpur seat, beside 1.75 lakh minorities. If SP extends support to Nitish Kumar, he might win from Phoolpur. He said that in most of the previous elections SP had fielded Kurmi candidates from the Phoolpur seat and had won. To name a few are Jang Bahadur Patel, Dharamraj Patel and Nagendra Patel. Noted Kurmi leader of UP, Ram Poojan Patel had won from this seat thrice in the past.
Besides all these caste equations, Phoolpur is considered among VIP constituencies also with Jawahar Lal Nehru representing this thrice and becoming Prime Minister of the country. Other prominent leaders like Vijay Laxmi Pandit, VP Singh, Janeshwar Mishra and Kamla Bahuguna too have represented this seat in the past.
