As the seven phase-long Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections continue, the fourth phase of the pivotal polls began on Wednesday, 23 February. Polling in this phase, which covers the five prime seats of the capital city of Lucknow, will span over 9 districts and 59 constituencies.
The districts that will cast their vote on Wednesday are Lakhimpur Kheri, Pilibhit, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Banda, Fatehpur. These districts cover 16 reserved constituencies.
Here's a look at the most notable candidates and the focal constituencies for the fourth phase, which will test the Samajwadi Party's projected gain against the BJP.
Bastions & Battlegrounds: Key Constituencies for Phase 4
Lakhimpur: A large population of farmers and Sikhs resides in this constituency, which became the hotbed of conflict in October last year after Union Minister Ajay Mishra's son allegedly ran over four farmers with his car in the area.
Lakhimpur had been under the hold of the Samajwadi Party from 1996-2012, when sitting BJP MLA and party nominee for the seat Yogesh Verma had been elected.
Lucknow Central: A grand seat in UP's capital city, this Assembly constituency will witness a tough contest between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party.
UP Minister Brajesh Pathak, the incumbent MLA for this seat, had defeated SP's Ravidas Mehrotra by a small margin of 5,094 votes in 2017.
Lucknow East: This constituency with 4.51 lakh voters has been a BJP stronghold since the 1991 state Assembly elections, and has voted in a saffron party candidate in each poll held in the last three decades.
UP Cabinet Minister of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation Ashutosh Tandon Gopal, who is the incumbent MLA from this seat, is contesting the Assembly elections from this BJP bastion once again.
Sarojini Nagar: Young voters, a bloc which has lately seen an influx of 1.5 lakh new individuals, are predicted to be a major deciding factor on this seat that the saffron party had never clutched in its grasp until 2017.
The Sarojini Nagar Assembly constituency in Lucknow has changed hands between the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party, and the SP for the last three decades. This year too, it is expected to host a close combat between the BJP and the SP.
Lucknow Cantonment: A BJP stronghold, this seat has been under the firm grasp of the party since 1991. State Minister Brijesh Pathak has been fielded as the BJP's candidate from Lucknow Cantt.
Recent BJP joinee Aparna Yadav, daughter-in-law of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Yadav, had been vying for this seat. Moreover, BJP MP Ritu Bahuguna Joshi, who had won this seat in 2017, had reportedly wanted her son Mayank to contest from Lucknow Cantt.
Sitapur: This seat is a former bastion of the Samajwadi Party, that had been wrested from its 20-year-long hold by the BJP in 2017.
Rakesh Rathore 'Guru' of the BJP had ousted SP stalwart Radhey Shyam Jaiswal, who had been elected to the seat four times since 1996. The seat will host a close battle between the two again in the 2022 Assembly elections.
Rae Bareli: A Congress stronghold for the most part of the last five decades, this high-profile constituency had been won by Aditi Singh, who recently defected from the INC to the BJP. Her father, Akhilesh Singh, had served as the MLA for Rae Bareli seat since 1993.
The party has now fielded a well-known local doctor Manish Singh Chauhan, who will compete against BJP's Aditi Singh, AAP's Gaurav Singh, and SP’s R P Yadav to keep hold of the Congress bastion.
Key Candidates
Utkarsh Verma Vs Yogesh Verma: Samajwadi party candidate Utkarsh Verma, who had served as the MLA for Lakhimpur in 2010-2012, is up against incumbent BJP MLA Yogesh who had ousted him in 2012, and again in 2017.
Rajeshwar Singh Vs Abishek Mishra: The BJP has fielded former Enforcement Directorate (ED) officer Rajeshwar Singh from the Sarojini Nagar seat, with the announcement of Singh's candidature being made merely a day after his voluntary retirement application was accepted by the central agency. SP leader and ex-UP Cabinet Minister Abhishek Mishra will be Singh's main opponent for this seat.
Ashutosh Tandon Vs Anurag Bhadauria: Contesting against UP Cabinet Minister Tandon on the Lucknow East seat is Samajwadi Party Anurag Bhadauria, the national spokesperson of SP and reportedly a close aide of Akhilesh Yadav.
Pooja Shukla Vs Neeraj Bora: Samajwadi Party's youth leader Pooja Shukla, who had made the headlines in 2017 for waving a black flag at CM Adityanath, has been fielded as the party's candidate from Lucknow North. She is up against incumbent BJP MLA Neeraj Bora, who had won the seat from the SP in 2017 by a small margin.
Ravidas Mehrotra Vs Rajneesh Gupta: Incumbent MLA and UP Minister Brajesh Pathak has been replaced by BJP candidate Rajneesh Gupta, who is presently serving as a corporator at the Lucknow Municipal Corporation. Gupta will contest against SP leader and former state minister Ravidas Mehrotra, who had lost the seat in 2017 by a marginal number of votes.
Asha Singh Vs Pankaj Gupta: Singh, the mother of the 2017 gang-rape survivor from Unnao, has been fielded by the Congress from the Unnao Sadar seat. She is up against incumbent BJP MLA Pankaj Gupta.
167 Candidates With Criminal Charges & 'Red Alert Constituencies' Blemish the Fourth Phase
A report released by the Association for Democratic Reform (ADR) has revealed that or 21 percent (129) of the 621 candidates contesting in the fourth phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections face serious criminal cases, such as rape and murder.
The ADR report, which is based on an analysis of poll affidavits filed by the candidates, found that 27 percent (167) of the candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.
Of these, 30 belong to the Congress, 26 to the Samajwadi Party, 17 to the BSP, and 9 have been fielded by the BJP.
Nearly half (29) of 59 constituencies going into polls in the fourth phase are 'red alert constituencies,' where three or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.
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