Parties pull out all stops as battle for Purvanchal hots up in UP

Lucknow: As the Lok Sabha elections enter the final phases, Uttar Pradesh is poised for an intense battle, with the BJP and its allies facing a strong competition from the SP-Congress alliance in Purvanchal region.

Purvanchal, comprising 27 Lok Sabha seats (14 in the sixth phase and 13 in the seventh and last phase), has emerged as a pivotal battleground, drawing attention due to its electoral significance and complex political and caste dynamics.

The 2022 Assembly poll results set the stage for a closely-contested battle between the BJP-led NDA and the SP-Congress combine.

Unlike in the 2019 General Elections, the BSP has preferred to go solo in 2024.

It may benefit or harm the NDA and the INDIA bloc on some seats depending on local factors since the contest appears to be a straight one between the NDA and the INDIA bloc.

In the 2022 Assembly polls, the SP had won 45 out of 135 Assembly seats in Purvanchal.

The Congress also made inroads with victories in two constituencies, while the BSP had bagged only one seat.

The BJP managed to win 69 seats with its allies securing an additional 18.

The fight may be even more intense in the sixth phase featuring 14 Lok Sabha seats.

It was in this region alone that the SP won more seats than the BJP in the 2022 Assembly polls.

Of the 70 Assembly seats under the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies, the SP emerged victorious on 34 seats while the NDA bagged 43 seats with the BJP winning 34 and its allies nine.

The SP had swept all the Assembly seats under Ambedkar Nagar, Lalganj and Azamgarh LS constituencies.

The Congress and the BSP also won one Assembly seat each in this region in 2022.

The SP won 11 of the 70 Assembly seats under the 13 Lok Sabha constituencies that will go to polls in the last phase on June 1.

The Congress also emerged victorious in one Assembly segment under Maharajganj Lok Sabha seat. The rest of the seats went to the NDA — 43 to the BJP and nine to its allies.

The battle for Purvanchal was not an easy one for the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections either.

Of the total 16 seats that the BJP-led NDA lost in UP in 2019, seven were in Purvanchal alone, five of them being in the sixth phase.

The BJP won the Machhlishahr seat by a very thin margin of just a few hundred votes.

The seats that the NDA could not win in 2019 LS polls in Purvanchal were Azamgarh, Ambedkar Nagar, Shravasti, Lalganj, Jaunpur, Ghosi and Ghazipur.

While the SP won Azamgarh, its then alliance partner BSP captured the remaining six seats.

The evolving alliances further complicate the electoral calculus. In 2019, the BSP was aligned with the Opposition, whereas in 2022, a rainbow coalition led by prominent OBC leaders, including OP Rajbhar, Swami Prasad Maurya and Dara Singh Chauhan bolstered the SP’s presence.

This time, the BSP is not part of any alliance while all the OBC leaders, barring Swami Prasad Maurya, have returned to the NDA fold.

The BJP will rely heavily on these OBC leaders, including the Apna Dal (S) chief Anupriya Patel, for maximising seats in the remaining last two phases in Purvanchal.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath remain influential factors, commanding considerable support in the region.

The presence of these two tall leaders will work to the advantage of the BJP that is leaving no stone unturned to win the battle of Purvanchal by trying to retain all the seats it won in 2019 and also win back the seven seats it lost.

In contrast, the SP is banking on its ‘PDA’ formula to bolster its prospects, leveraging a strategic alliance strategy to galvanise support among OBCs, Dalits and minorities expecting that the old Yadav-Muslim support will work as an add-on.

The party sought to apply this formula to the distribution of tickets in most cases.

With the final phases approaching, all eyes are on Purvanchal where all political parties, including BJP’s allies like Apna Dal (S), Nishad Party and the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), have high stakes and hence, have pulled out all the stops to win the race to Delhi.

IANS