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It will be BSP vs SP contest in Ballia

LUCKNOW: The by-election for the Ballia Lok Sabha seat in eastern Uttar Pradesh scheduled for this Saturday is poised to witness a straight contest between the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati banking on her social engineering formula to upstage her predecessor Mulayam Singh’s determined charge to preserve former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar’s political legacy.

The by-election has been caused by the death of Mr. Chandra Shekhar.

Till his death on July 8 this year, Ballia was synonymous with Mr. Shekhar, who represented the seat in the Lok Sabha from 1977 onward with the possible exception of 1980. The Samajwadi Party president considered the former PM his friend, philosopher and guide and it was on account of the excellent equation Mr. Singh shared with Mr. Shekhar that he decided to field the latter’s eldest son, Neeraj Shekhar, in the upcoming by-election.

But considering that former Minister and alleged mafia don of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Hari Shankar Tewari’s son, Vinay Shankar Tewari was named as the BSP candidate by Ms. Mayawati way back in July it was clear that she was equally determined to upset the Samajwadi applecart. Ms. Mayawati has placed her cards on the Dalit-Brahmin equation to wrest the initiative from Mr. Singh, who is hoping to cash in on the sympathy wave which the former PM’s death had evoked in Ballia.

For about a month, nearly a dozen UP Ministers have been campaigning for the ruling party candidate. The Chief Minister herself addressed an election meeting in Ballia on Wednesday where she underlined her government’s initiative towards the betterment of “sarv samaj”. Mr. Tewari belongs to Gorakhpur district and is reportedly relying on his father’s muscle power to garner votes. In fact, supporters of the BSP candidate last week roughed up the supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, Virendra Singh.

Apart from highlighting the achievements of the Mulayam regime, the Samajwadi Party campaign managers have made the alleged influx of Gorakhpur mafia into the politics of Ballia an additional poll issue. Mr. Singh, who earlier addressed two election meetings in Ballia and is due to address the third on Thursday, reportedly harped on the free run given to the mafia and criminal elements in U.P. in the BSP regime, and the rampant corruption.

The Samajwadi Party’s campaigning received a boost with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India deciding to throw their weight behind Mr. Shekhar. The smaller parties, including the Bharatiya Samaj Party, have also extended their support to the SP candidate.

The Congress and the BJP are represented by Rajiv Upadhyaya and Virendra Singh, respectively. In all, 16 candidates are in the race.

Meanwhile, 25 companies of Central Para Military Force (CPMF) will be deployed during polling on Saturday. This would be in addition to the deployment of the police and Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel. The Ballia Parliamentary constituency comprises five Assembly segments of Chilkahar, Bansdih, Doaba, Ballia and Kopachit. It has 1,414 polling stations and 711 polling centres.

Counting of votes will be held on January 2.

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