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Party (SP)-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) alliance which seeks to capitalize on the combined strength of Akhilesh Yadav and Jayant Choudhary. It will also be a litmus test for nine ministers in the Adityanath government: Srikant Sharma from Mathura, Atul Garg from Ghaziabad, Suresh Rana from Thana Bhawan, Kapildev Agarwal from Muzaffarnagar, Sandeep Singh from Atrauli, Laxminarayan Chaudhary from Chhata, Anil Sharma from Shikarpur , GS Dharmesh from Agra Cantt and Dinesh Khatik from Hastinapur. Among the 11 districts which will see polls, elections will be held in Shamli, Hapur, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Mathura, and Agra.
In the 2017 elections, the BJP had won 53 seats out of 58, while the SP and the BSP had got two seats each, and the RLD had won one seat. The polling will start at 7 am and will end at 6 pm. Voting will be held using Covid-19 safety protocols and the guidelines as issued by the Election Commission from time to time. While voters are required to wear masks, maintain social distance and use sanitiser while voting, the election officials will also be given a COVID-19 kit to conduct the election smoothly. Thermal scanning of all persons will be carried out before allowing them to enter inside the EVM room. The election commission may reserve the last one hour of the polling for Covid-19 positive voters.
The BJP’s campaign in western UP revolves around the development plank by CM Yogi Adityanath and the double-engine government narrative by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The party has also tried to discredit the Samajwadi Party by putting the spotlight on issues of the past, including the alleged “exodus” of Hindus from Kairana before 2017 and 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. Meanwhile, the SP-RLD combine have centered their campaigning on farmers’ issues and has attacked Adityanath over poll promises.
Among the seats to watch out for are Kairana, Muzaffarnagar and Noida. Kairana, in the spotlight for the alleged exodus of Hindu families, has been a hot potato for all parties. The BJP leaders have alleged that a large number of Hindus were forced to migrate from Kairana due to threats during the Samajwadi Party rule before 2017. The party turned it into a significant poll plank, which was highlighted by Home Minister Amit Shah launching his poll campaign .
In the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, over 60 people lost their lives, and several were displaced. The riots created a gap between the much-celebrated ties between the Muslim and Jat communities. The BJP later won the Jat farmers’ support significantly – in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, 2017 UP Assembly polls, and 2019 Lok Sabha polls. But the 2020-21 farmer protests helped rekindle the Jat-Muslim ties.
In Noida, BJP’s UP vice-president Pankaj Singh will face a challenge from SP’s Sunil Choudhary, Congress’ Pankhuri Pathak, and Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Pankaj Awana.
The canvassing for the first phase remained confined to the virtual medium due to a ban on road shows and physical rallies in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The first phase will cover the Jat-dominated belt of western UP from where farmers had participated actively in the stir against the Centre’s three agri laws in the national capital. The Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls will be held in seven phases in February-March starting from February 10. Counting of votes will be held on March 10.
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