Lucknow: Stray cattle destroying crops, farm unrest and annoyance with the sitting legislators have become major issues on the 59 assembly seats of nine districts in Awadh and Bundelkhand region going for polls on Wednesday.
For the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Awadh has been a strong bastion even in the bad phase of its politics. It has been able to retain the Lucknow parliamentary seat of this region since 1991 and in the previous assembly polls, BJP had made a clean sweep in four of these nine districts going to vote in the fourth phase. However, there are few seats like Mohanlalganj in Lucknow, Unchahaar in Raibareli, Sidhauli of Sitapur district and Purwa in Unnao where BJP could not succeed in the last three decades.
The large-scale presence of stray cattle in the area has become major issue in the elections of fourth phase. Realizing the seriousness of this issue, almost all the prominent leaders of BJP have been promising to find out a solution of cattle menace after the elections are over. Even the Prime Minister Modi and the union home minister Amit Shah as well as UP CM Yogi have assured farmers to resolve this problem soon. However the opposition parties, mainly Samajwadi Party, have been raising this issue in its campaign meetings and rallies.
Farm movement and killing of farmers during it by crushing under the vehicle of the son of union minister Ajay Mishra Teni had occurred in Lakhimpur district of Awadh region. The son of union minister has been released on bail during the run-up for UP polls and this has annoyed farmers at large. The ruling BJP is facing a tough time in Pilibhit district, adjoining Lakhimpur where its MP Varun Gandhi has been targeting his own government on farmers and various other issues. The Lakhimpur incident of farmers crushing under the vehicle has its impact in the neighbouring district of Sitapur also. Opposition to target BJP has raised bizarre incidents of crime against women in Unnao in the last five years. In Banda and Fatehpur district of Bundelkhand going for poll on Wednesday, stray cattle and destroyed crop due to calamities has become an issue.
The prominent candidates in this phase are UP ministers Brijesh Pathak, Ashutosh Tandon and Jai Kumar Singh besides opposition leaders Abhishek Mishra, Ravidas Mehrotra and Dr Manoj Pandey. BJP would have to undergo a litmus test in state capital of Lucknow where it had won eight of the nine assembly seats in 2017 elections.
Of the 59 assembly seats of nine districts going for polls in the fourth phase, 49 are in Awadh region while 10 in the Bundelkhand. In Awadh region polling would be held in Lucknow, Pilibhit, Lakhimpur, Sitapur, Unnao, Raibareili and Hardoi. Six seats of Fathepur and four from Banda in Bundelkhand regions would also vote on Wednesday. In the 2017 assembly elections, BJP had won 51 of these 59 seats while SP could win four only. BSP and Congress had won two seats each. Later on, both the Congress legislators of this region Aditi Singh and Rakesh Singh had joined BJP.
Fourth Phase
Districts 9, Seats 59
Total Candidates --- 624 (91 women)
Total Voters 2.13 Crore
Male Voters---1.14 crore
Female Voters--- 99.3 lakh
Third Gender ----966
Polling Centers --- 13817
Polling Booths---24643
