There are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies in politics. The adage was translated into reality when former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Bahujan Samaj Party Mayawati stepped out to vote on Monday in the fifth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Mayawati, is a voter listed in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow, a traditional bastion of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The ruling party has fielded home minister Rajnath Singh from the constituency.
Mayawati’s BSP and the Samajwadi Party of Akhilesh and Mulayam Singh Yadav were sworn enemies before the BJP’s illustrious victories in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and the 2017 Assembly elections pushed them into a crisis of existence. The only way to tide over this crisis was to end the bitter rivalry since the infamous 1995 ‘Guest House kaand’ and join hands. In January, they announced a pact for the Lok Sabha elections. As per the seat-sharing agreement, the BSP is contesting from 38 seats while SP is in the fray from 38 seats in Uttar Pradesh which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha.
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Lucknow is a seat which fell into the SP’s quota. The party has fielded Poonam Sinha, wife of former rebel BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha, as its candidate. So, when Mayawati entered the polling station to cast her vote, the BSP chief’s options were limited. The choice she had was between the ‘cycle’ button, the election symbol of the Samajwadi Party, an outfit she has held her biggest rival since her bitter fallout decades ago. On the other hand is Rajnath Singh, the candidate of a party against whose policies she justifies the very existence of the SP-BSP alliance. Which way she voted is anybody’s guess.
The alliance of the SP and BSP is today banking on the demography of the state win, but at the same time, it is facing a formidable challenge from the BJP which is once again fighting with Narendra Modi its face. The Modi factor appears to be far stronger in the state, especially in the eastern region which covers 40 parliamentary seats including the capital city of Lucknow. However, factors like caste arithmetic, SP-BSP coming together and Congress fielding candidates in 70 constituencies have made the battle interesting.
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So far, polling has been carried out at 53 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, covering all 40 western region seats where RLD led by Ajit Singh has a strong presence. The RLD is contesting only three seats and extending support to the alliance candidates in the rest of the seats. In the fifth phase, a total of 14 seats in the eastern UP went to polls on Monday. The fifth phase is witnessing a clash of the titans with BJP’s Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani, Congress’ Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi trying their luck. Out of 14 seats, the BSP is contesting from five seats and SP from seven seats.
On Monday morning, local MP Rajnath and Mayawati were among the early voters. While the BSP supremo cast her ballot at City Montessori Inter College in Lucknow and urged the people to vote wisely, Rajnath along with his family cast votes at polling booth 333 in Scholars’ Home School.
If Mayawati did exercise her franchise in favour of the SP candidate, this would perhaps be the first time she pressed the ‘Cycle’ symbol button on the EVM. “Women should come out of their homes and vote. Your vote is precious,” she told reporters outside the polling station.
Meanwhile, the contest is Lucknow has become triangular with Congress fielding Acharya Pramod Krishnam against Rajnath and Sinha. Rajnath Singh, who is seeking re-election from here, said that the Mahagatbandhan is no challenge for the BJP in his constituency. When asked about Sinha, he replied, “I don’t want to comment on her(SP-BSP-RLD candidate Poonam Sinha), as I believe elections are not about individuals but about issues.”
While Sinha is making her political debut, self-styled spiritual guru Krishnam had unsuccessfully contested from Sambhal in 2014. Krishnam had got just 1.52% of the votes. Singh had served as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh between 2000 and 2002). The Lucknow Lok Sabha seat was once held by late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
In 2014, Rajnath Singh had defeated Rita Bahuguna Joshi by a margin of 2.72 lakh votes, creating a record of registering a win with the highest margin in the electoral history of Lucknow.