Political activity intensifies in eastern UP ahead of assembly polls due early next year

With assembly elections due in Uttar Pradesh next year, political parties seem to be focussing on the eastern part of the state which is considered politically sensitive and has given more leaders than workers.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi recently visited Allahabad to meet members of the Nishad family whose boats were allegedly damaged by the administration.

Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav is holding his party’s block level meetings in Mirzapur while BJP national president J P Nadda addressed a rally in Varanasi on Sunday.

On Saturday, several leaders visited Varanasi to pay their respects to Sant Ravidas.

Politically, eastern Uttar Pradesh is very important for all parties. It is said that the party which controls eastern UP controls Lucknow. The importance of this region can be gauged from the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency Varanasi is the fulcrum of eastern UP politics. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath belongs to Gorakhpur – which is the gateway to eastern UP. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh belongs to Chandauli.

Numerically also, eastern UP holds an edge as 128 assembly segments in the 403-member Vidhan Sabha – which is roughly 31 percent of the total assembly seats of Uttar Pradesh – are located in the region.

“Political activities in the state have increased because the state is likely to have polls in January-February, 2022,” a Samajwadi Party lawmaker said.

Justifying his party’s activities in eastern UP, he said farmers are up in arms against the government over farm laws in western UP. The atmosphere is building against the ruling BJP in the eastern part of the state too, he added.

In 2017, the BJP won 320 seats in UP with a vote percentage of over 40 per cent. Out of 128 seats in eastern UP, it had won 78 seats, with a strike rate of over 60 per cent. In 2012, Samajwadi Party had won 63 seats from eastern UP while in 2007, when BSP introduced the so-called Brahmin-Dalit formula, it won 71 seats from the region.

“This trend clearly shows that the party which dominates eastern UP gets to form the government in Lucknow. Politics in the region depends on the way people belonging to various castes and sub-castes vote. It is very difficult to predict which way these castes will move in a particular election. This has made eastern UP a big political maze which every political party wants to conquer,” Nomita P Kumar of Giri Institute of Development Studies said.