Gorakhpur By-Election: Will SP-BSP Team Spoil BJP’s Game?

Video Editor: Sandeep Suman

Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav have become a huge concern for the BJP who were, till very recently, considering the UP bypolls an easy target. The by-election for Gorakhpur and Phulpur will happen on 11 March 2018. Gorakhpur is one of the most high-profile Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh – it was from this constituency that UP's CM Yogi Adityanath became an MP.

For the past 20 years, Yogi Adityanath has been occupying this seat, but after becoming the Chief Minister, he had to resign to form a part of the assembly.

The Electoral Politics of Gorakhpur

A total of 16 Lok Sabha elections and 1 by-election have been held in this constituency so far, in which 3 members of Gorakhnath Peeth have won 10 times. This seat has stayed in the hands of the Congress 6 out of those 10.

For the last 29 years, the Gorakhpur seat has been continuously dominated by the Gorakhnath establishment members. In 1989, Mahant Avaidyanath of the bench contested on the ticket of Hindu Mahasabha and defeated Janata Dal candidate Rampal Singh by a margin of 10 percent.

In the elections of 1991 and 1996, Avaidyanath won the BJP ticket. For two consecutive decades since 1998, UP CM Yogi Adityanath has been on the BJP ticket for this seat so far.

What do the people of Gorakhpur want?

UP elections have been contested on the basis of caste equations. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the caste card was played in a very systematic and planned manner, and formed the basis of the Modi wave.

The first thing you need to understand is that in Gorakhpur, elections have no key issues. We are all very religious here and that’s the only issue. No other issue can affect the vote bank.

Arun Banka, Businessman

But the youth of Gorakhpur are watching this election rise above caste and religion-based politics.

We will vote for whoever provides us with employment. We will not vote for Yogi Adityanath. Only the government that provides employment is good.

Sasikala, Student

There are 19 lakh voters in Gorakhpur seat. Among them, the majority belong to the Nishad caste. These are followed by the Brahmin voters, and around three and a half lakh Muslim-Yadav voters.

For the Gorakhpur parliamentary seat, BJP has given the ticket to Upendra Shukla, and the Samajwadi Party has fielded 29-year-old Praveen Nishad to give a tough fight to the BJP.

(This story was first published on Hindi Quint)