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Third phase today in Uttar Pradesh

Atiq Khan

Sonia Gandhi among those who will test their luck; polling will be held in 15 constituencies

Sonia polled 58.75 per cent votes in 2004
SP has not entered a candidate in Rae Bareli

LUCKNOW: Congress president Sonia Gandhi will lead a motley group who will test their luck in the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday. Polling will be held in 15 parliamentary constituencies, including Rae Bareli, Lucknow, Kanpur and Jhansi, spread across 13 districts.

Ms. Gandhi, who polled 58.75 per cent votes in 2004, will be seeking her third straight win from Rae Bareli, having been elected for the first time from the Gandhi pocket borough in 1999. While the Samajwadi Party has not entered a candidate, the Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded R.P. Kushwaha and the Bharatiya Janata Party, R.B. Singh.

Given her track record in Rae Bareli as its elected representative, Ms. Gandhi is unlikely to face stiff resistance from either the BSP or the BJP. Yet, there was no let-up in campaigning, with her daughter Priyanka Vadra taking over the responsibility of canvassing. Ms. Gandhi visited the VVIP constituency only once during campaigning for the third phase when she addressed a rally on April 25.

In Lucknow, another prestigious seat, which not long ago was dubbed a VVIP constituency, the scenario is different.

The MP and former Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee’s absence from the poll scene in the constituency because of ill health has made it certain that the battle of the ballot this time round will be keenly fought in what appears to be a four-cornered contest. While Lalji Tandon has put his money on the Atal charisma to retain the seat for the BJP, Rita Bahuguna Joshi of the Congress, a late entrant in the contest, is banking on the support of the hill people settled in the city and the Muslims to wrest the seat from the saffron party.

Akhilesh Das Gupta of the Bahujan Samaj Party, who deserted the Congress last year, is the third equation in Lucknow’s battle of the ballot and is banking heavily on support from the Vaishya community and the youth.

Nafisa Ali of the Samajwadi Party, whose entry was clearly overshadowed by the exit of the party’s original choice, Sanjay Dutt, is the fourth player.

Notwithstanding the outcome, an interesting feature will be the voting percentage in Lucknow. The polling percentage in 2004 was 35.28 per cent, the lowest among all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in U.P. Mr. Vajpayee secured 56.12 per cent of the popular vote.

A three-cornered contest is in the making in Kanpur where Union Minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal is being challenged by Satish Mahana of the BJP and Sukhda Mishra of the BSP. Surendra Mohan Agarwal has been fielded by the SP. In the 2004 polls, Mr. Jaiswal managed to scrape through by 5,638 votes ahead of his nearest BJP rival, Suresh Pachauri. Kanpur recorded 43.35 per cent voting and Mr. Jaiswal secured 34.12 per cent of the popular vote.

Considering that the Congress has been banking heavily on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme and the loan waiver scheme for getting the support of rural voters, the real test of the Central schemes will be in Jhansi, Hamirpur and Jalaun (reserved), in the backward Bundelkhand region.

Scorching heat in the U.P. plains does affect polling in the State. The low turnout in the second phase was attributed to the heat. The met office here has forecast a maximum temperature of 42 degrees Celsius on Thursday. With day temperature soaring, it is over to the voters to beat the heat.

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